


Wounds bleeding black.

by imagination_tier



Series: Bendy Draws Studios. [1]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Angst, Attempted Murder, Chapter length may vary, Henry is hella gay, Henry probably has Stockholm Syndrome, Hurt/Comfort, Joey and Susie love arguing, Mild Gore, almost suicidal lack of self-preservation, at all, bibbidi-bobbidi, dammit Bendy treat your children properly, dysfunction junction, even if it's hard, eventually fluff, he's definitely been gaslit to all hell, humans to toons, i have no writing experience, i have zero regrets about chapter 8 and 9, i'm still procrastinating garbage, looks like I'll have to write it, making up for mistakes, pacing all over the damn place, playing peacekeeper, so is Alice, the reverse au that was going to happen eventually, the toons are a little codependent, there an actual plot!, threats of murder, toon logic, toons to humans, watch as i make everyone wildly OOC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2018-12-01 09:36:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 24,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11483652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imagination_tier/pseuds/imagination_tier
Summary: After his horrible fight with his best friend and boss Benjamin, Boris Wolfric thought he'd never set foot again at his old job. But he still finds himself contemplating it. Ten years is a long time, maybe things have changed? He decides to find out.(In which the worst case scenario is avoided, but that doesn't mean things are fine. Not by a long shot.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'm imagination_tier, going by guess-my-country on Tumblr. I had a neat idea for an au that's not going anywhere there, so I thought "how bout I try writing it?" If you want to use the concept, go for it! I won't stop you. Let's see how this goes shall we?

Boris Wolfric stared at the small two story building, lost in thoughts and memories. It hasn't changed much, he could almost see a younger him walking out the door, whistling whatever tune he was working on that moment. He could also vividly see himself storming out, an angry snarl across his face as he yelled back at his once best friend. Had it really been ten years since he left?

He lightly pulled at his bright red hair, a nervous habit he never quite managed to stop, and contemplated his next move. This was the closest he'd gotten to his goal, usually he'd be running away as soon as he made it to the street. 

'Ok that's enough of that! I need to see this through, no turning back now.' Mind finally made up, he squared his shoulders and marched forward.

. . . 

Bendy Draws Studios was a bustling place different from the small studio trying to make it big he was familiar with. Various people were running around getting important documents to their destination, artists working on storyboards and backgrounds and a small group, animators most likely, complaining about last minute changes and a looming deadline. He'd be concerned he was in the wrong place if not for the posters plastered to the walls.

The most popular Angel Joey cartoon posters decorated the place, featuring titles such as Guardian devil, Quiet time ft. Henry the Cat and Darling dear ft. Susie Devil Darling, alongside newspaper clippings and various awards.

Boris watched the barely controlled chaos and found himself grinning. He had a feeling Bendy wasn't going to change how he ran the place. He was pulled from his musings by a timid voice.

"E-excuse me sir, but are you looking for someone, do you have an appointment or something?" The girl in front of him had a small frown as she waited for her answer.

"Not exactly, but can you tell me where Mr. Damian is? I need to speak with him." Before she could answer, she was cut of by a familiar voice coming from behind him.

"Boris? Is that really you?" He'd recognize that voice anywhere. Turning he was greeted with the sight of the one and only Alice Saint. She had a large stack of folders in her arms and her long hair done up in a messy bun, sky blue eyes widened in surprise. Boris smiled sheepishly and held out a hand.

"Alice! Sorry I didn't give you a heads up, this visit wasn't really planned." Alice handed her stack to the girl from before, gently took the offered hand, and unceremoniously yanked him into a bone crushing hug. Boris winced, he'd almost forgotten how ridiculously powerful Alice was despite her small size (compared to him at least.) She eventually let go and took her stack of folders back. "Follow me, we can talk in the office."

. . .

Boris wasn't surprised when Alice led him to what looked like Bendy's office. It was empty more often than not since he was notoriously unwilling to stay put and would often be found prowling through the studio incase he was needed, whether his assistance was asked for or not. Alice sat down at the desk before carefully arranging her folders and staring to look through them. She glanced at Boris before returning her attention back to them. He jumped slightly when she suddenly spoke.

"I'll be honest, after that fight I was certain the next time I'd see you would be at Bendy's funeral, and even that was unlikely to me." She put down the folder she was reading and stared him straight in the eyes.

"It's been ten years, almost eleven. What brings you here?" He felt like running, but firmly stomped out that thought. He was here to try and fix things, not make it worse by running away like a coward.

"Honestly Alice? I've been trying to visit for three years now. Every time I've tried to come, I'd keep making excuses to run away. I'm tired of it." He reached up and pulled at his hair. "I don't expect to work here again, or even an apology. I just need to know if Bendy's willing to start over. I need to know for sure if I can salvage what's left of our friendship, instead of wondering about what-ifs or could-haves." Soft laughter came from Alice as she lightly shook her head.

"Only you would think that the only problem was you freckles. Neither you or Benjamin handled the news well, everyone knows that." Boris let go of his hair and looked around the office.

"Where is Bendy anyway? What's he been up to these years?" He almost missed it, but Alice flinched at his question before returning to a neutral face.

"Oh the usual. Running around making the studio sure "no one messes up", scaring the interns, pranking some poor schmuck and leaving poor me to deal with all this paperwork he should be doing himself, but what's new." Her glare lost most of its effectiveness due to her wide smile. It was nice to know some things never changed.

 "Well, I'm interested anyway. What's it like now the studio's so popular?" She picked up a pen and gave him an amused look before launching into a story about how many of her animators where running around when a small detail ended up rendering a mostly complete episode useless.

. . .

Conversation slowly drifted to the weird contraption that Boris had noticed on their way to the office.

"You mean the Ink Machine? Bendy's been working on it for years now. What it actually does is pretty hush hush, but it's been keeping us ahead of the competition. It's a complicated piece of machinery."

It had gotten quite dark and Boris was certain he wasn't going to be seeing Bendy today and started to get up to leave. "When Bendy shows up, can you tell him I visited, and that I'd be willing to meet up with him?"

Just as he was about to get out the door, he felt Alice pull him back inside. She quickly checked if anyone was nearby before slamming the door shut. She pulled him down to her eye level and started whispering.

"Boris, I need to tell you something very important, _please_  believe me. Bendy went off the deep end when you left and has been up to some very,  _very_ messed up things. The Ink Machine has another function, one only a handful of people are aware. I'm scared Boris. Bendy's messing with something beyond him and I'm scared it's going to backfire horribly and destroy everyone." She reached down her blouse and pulled out a small but elaborate key on a thin chain.

"You need to see what he's done for yourself. Go to the basement and find the door hidden behind the broken chairs. It will lead you to the lower level. Go down the left hallway, don't even try the right, and avoid the ink. You'll know what you're looking for." With that she calmly collected her folders and left, leaving Boris alone with the key.

. . .

Boris wasn't sure what Alice was going on about, but she tended to underreact to things and wasn't one for unnecessary drama. So he made his way to the basement and located the hidden door. Heeding her warning, he didn't even glance at the right hallway and made his way down the left, keeping his eyes and ears open. He heard a small sound of pain and a scolding voice coming from one of the doors.

He carefully opened the door a crack and peered inside. The first thing he noticed was the person that was talking, a short figure with strange hair, the bangs curling upwards to give the impression of horns. He only knew one person with hair that ridiculous. Benjamin 'Bendy' Damian, though he was dressed quite different from the classy clothing he stubbornly insisted on, surrounded by medical equipment.

The second thing he noticed was what Bendy was doing. He was leaning over a small figure strapped to the table, a gag keeping it quiet as he poked around its black insides with his tools. He finally realized what exactly his friend was doing.

"B-be-ndy? What are you doing?!" The small asian jumped and finally noticed the redhead standing in the door. His expression went through a mix of emotions, jumping from anger to confusing to fear before settling on happy.

"BORIS!! You're actually here. I-I can't believe it!" He ran up to Boris and hugged him for all he's worth, getting the black goop staining his jacket all over him, ignoring Boris's discomfort as he kept his eyes on the figure strapped down. He grinned up at Boris."Geez man, what have you been eating? I don't remember you being this tall. Are you sure you're still 6'5?" He jabbed Boris in the gut, still grinning. 

"Bendy, what is all this? What are you doing? And what is that thing you're cutting open?!" Bendy blinked and looked back at the table before nearly doubling over with laughter. Boris just stared at him as if he'd grown another head. Bendy's laughter slowed as he stood up straight and dragged a stunned Boris closer to the table. Boris could make out that the thing was rather catlike with its long tail and ears, but still humanoid looking.

"Come on Bor, don't tell me you don't remember your favorite character." He reached out and patted the cat thing on its head, which responded by opening one  _pie cut eye._ Boris suddenly recognized the mostly white, black and grey calico. He turned to Bendy, eyes widened with horror and almost unwilling to confirm his realization.

"Bendy, is this ... Henry?!" The smaller man simply grinned at him. "Right on the head Bor! You kinda came at an akward time, I was going to invite you over to see my work when I was done. Let me just stitch him up real quick, wait for me in the room next door." With that, Bendy went of to gather the necessary material needed to close the gaping chest as Boris practically ran out, unwilling to stay in the room covered in ink stains (oh God, is that the equivalent of blood?!?!) and the stench of something dying.


	2. Chapter 2

Boris was seated on a plush couch in the room next door, desperately trying to get his breathing under control. He'd seen some truly disturbing things during the war, but what he just witnessed? It easily made it to the top of the list. A small part of him wanted to run, run far away and never look back. The majority however, was yelling at him how he could have stopped this. He  _knew_ that Bendy's sense of morality was off, he should have stuck around to keep an eye on him instead of being so stubborn all those years ago.  _He should have stopped this from ever happening!!_

Boris physically shook his head and forced his hands to stay in his lap. He'd done this song and dance ever since he befriended the "uncorrectable problem child" when they were kids, always making excuses and not letting Bendy's aggressive behavior scare him off. It endeared him to Bendy, who at that point thought no one would be willing to put up with him, but it also made Boris the only person he'd even hear out if told to stop doing something.

As much as he didn't like admitting it, he knew Bendy had to be held accountable for his actions, no matter what his brain insisted. He would however, stick around to do damage control. He had a feeling there was more trouble than he knew about and had to at least make sure the situation didn't escalate. He was dragged from his thoughts when he heard someone clear their throat.

Bendy was standing in the door with Henry peeking from behind him with his ears pressed to his head. Now that he had a good look at the cat Boris noticed he was quite small, standing around four feet and dressed in slightly baggy overalls. He somehow looked worse than before, shaking lightly and desperately trying to stay standing. Bendy didn't seem to notice as he slapped the cat on the back, who let out a hastily cut off cry of pain.

"I  _did_ have some more experiments planned out for today, but I think you two should be properly introduced. Henry, this is my oldest and greatest friend Boris Wolfric, he used to be my music director and had a big say in your character. Boris, introducing Henry the Cat!" He pushed Henry forward and made a 'go on' motion before leaving.

The two stared at each other as an award silence filled the room.

"So-"

**"Hell-"**

They both abruptly stopped talking and the awkwardness increased. Boris decided to try again.

"So, are you alright? You really don't look so good." Henry blinked slowly and tilted his head, obviously confused.

 **"What are you talking about, I'm fi-!!"**  He swaying violently before falling to the ground and Boris quickly moved to catch him. He carefully put the exhausted and shivering cat in his lap, carefully looking him over before spotting what looked like ink staining the inside of his overalls.

"Henry, you're hurt! Why didn't you say anything?! We need to get Bendy to fix you up, now!" Boris was confused when he started violently shaking his head, his tail puffing out in agitation.

**"N-NO! I'm n-not supposed to bother Mr. Bendy with trivial things, he-he has more important things to do than watch after me. Go get Alice, she can do good stitches."**

Boris wanted to ponder on the implications of that sentence, but decided against it when Henry started to cough up ink. He carefully pick up the cat and immediately ran of to find Alice.

. . .

Boris found Alice in the basement, nervously pacing. She let out a sigh of relief before doing a double take when she realized what exactly Boris was carrying. She dragged him back into the secret floor and went right. They walked silently for a few minutes when she stopped at a door not covered in ink stains.

The room was mostly clean except for one particularly ink covered corner. A bunch of medical equipment was set on the shelf next to a large cot. Alice began to riffle through the equipment.

"Put Henry on the table and keep him calm, this is going to hurt, a lot. " 

Boris watched with a pained expression as Alice redid the sloppy stitches. There wasn't much he could do except letting Henry dig his surprisingly sharp claws into his forearm to keep from screaming his throat raw. He let his mind wander when he noticed something weird.

The ink in the corner was bubbling.

Alice looked up at the sound and stopped her work to get Boris's attention. "Don't worry, we're all allies here. I wouldn't bring anyone I didn't trust." The ink bubbled even more when a large black figure suddenly rose from the puddle. The black ink dripped off as if it was water and two figures were revealed, huddled together and obviously on the offence. Two figures that Boris knew well.

Susie Devil Darling. Standing around three foot five, she looked like she came right of the screen, from her thick spaded tail to her iconic shoulder length hair with the ends spiking upwards. The main difference was that her usually small fangs were quite large and her gloved hands were formed into wicked sharp talons, ready to rip into an enemy.

Angel Joey. At around two feet with curly hair, permanent blushes on his cheeks and dressed in a toga paired with gladiator sandals, he really shouldn't be feeling like the most dangerous thing in the room, but Boris wasn't going to let appearances trick him into underestimating a potential threat. His halo was glowing brightly despite the ink stubbornly clinging to it and the ink in the room got even more volatile as his glare intensified.

The pair stated him down, no one speaking. The silence was broken by a particularly loud yell of pain. The two toons immediately flew across the room, reaching out to gently touch the suffering calico. Susie broke the silence first, a relieved sob escaping past her lips.

 **"Henry, you're OK! Thank the Song."** She carefully hugged his head, mindful of staying out of Alice's way. Joey's attention returned to the newcomer, squinting at him. Boris returned the gesture.

"Boris, Joey and Susie. Susie and Joey, Boris. Now can you please stop sizing each other up? We have more important things to worry about."

"Alice, is this the other function of the Ink Machine you were talking about? It can bring cartoons to life?" She nodded and continued her work. Joey was still squinting at Boris. He was a about to say something when the little angel spoke.

 **"Before we were forced to hide out, everyone was always saying that Mr. Damian never listened to anybody except for one guy, and he's been gone for years. I don't care wh** **y you left. If Alice brought you, she must think you can help. Please, I'm tired of this twisted game of cat and mouse. I want that _thing_ to leave my friends alone. I want to be able to sleep at night without worrying that wacko is going to find us and cut us open again. Can you honestly say you'll h** **elp?"**  He looked exhausted and already prepared for a no.

"Joey, I don't know exactly what's going, but I swear this to you. I  _will_ get Bendy to stop what he's doing here, I swear I will keep him from hurting you and your friends ever again." At his words Joey smiled widely, looking more like the angel of mischief than he'd looked the entire time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, I've got another fucking bunch of exams looming in the distance like a storm you know you can't avoid so you just have to live with it. Thank God school's almost over. I need another nap. Or at least try going to bed earlier.

The toons were sprawled across the cot in a pile of tangled limbs, fast asleep. Joey and Susie had cuddled up to an exhausted Henry as soon as Alice was done redoing the stitches, paying no attention to the glare she shot them. Boris watched them with curiosity. While Henry sleeping could be explained with his severe exhaustion, the other two were obviously worked up and agitated, ready to attack at any moment. He never expected them to willingly go to sleep with an unknown in the room. perhaps they were confident they could easily deal with him? Or maybe they trusted him, despite how little they actually knew about him, and didn't think being on guard was necessary.

"Alice? How exactly am I supposed to stop Bendy from continuing whatever his plans are?"

Alice, who was still putting her things back, turned to face him and quirked an eyebrow up. "Just tell him to stop Boris."

He gave Alice a deadpan look. "You can't  _seriously_ think that's going to work right? If you haven't made him see reason, what chance do I have?!"

Alice actually rolled her eyes at his comment. "Come on Boris, he only listens to me when he feels like it or when I threaten him and you know it. I've seen him  _physically_ attack someone for  _asking_ about the door. From his perspective, you've just shown up with no explanation in the most secure place in the studio, and what does he do? He stops what he's doing and starts talking with you, even dragging Henry with him to introduce you to your favorite character. He didn't even take time to fix him up properly like he usually does. Face it Boris, you're still the only person he'll listen to."

Boris wanted to say she was wrong and just wanted him to do the dirty work, but he kept his mouth shut. No matter how much he denied it, it didn't change the fact that she was telling the truth. They both knew it.

"So what do you want me to do? Just go up to him and say "Hey Bendy! Could you stop torturing these cartoon creatures you've apparently created with science and satanism? That would be great!" He may be willing to listen to me, but that doesn't mean he'll stop this insanity!"

Alice pinched the bridge of her nose. "God, how did you ever get anything done with that kind of attitude? Look, I'll keep an eye on the toons just in case. You go see if Bendy can be reasoned with. If he won't listen to you, there's no hope for him."

. . .

Boris found Bendy in the same room the small man had left him and Henry, sorting through some files. He perked up when he noticed who had come in the room.

"There you are Boris! Where'd you run off to, I couldn't find you anywhere!"

"I went looking for Alice. Henry collapsed pretty soon after you left and he mentioned she could fix him up." Bendy's grin wavered a bit before he composed himself.

"Smart move Bor! Alice is pretty good at fixing him up. I, uhm, may have done a poor job patching him up in my excitement..."

Boris could feel his blood begin to boil. "A poor job? A POOR JOB?! He said it felt like his insides where burning up! I'm dumbfounded it didn't kill him!"

Bendy has a slightly annoyed look on his face. "He's just being overdramatic Boris, a toon can survive anything as long as they have enough ink in their system. It may hurt like absolutely hell, but it won't kill them. It  _can't_ kill them. I made damn sure of that."

Boris could feel his anger rise again. "You mean you made them that way _intentionally?!_ "

"Of course I did." he scoffed. "If I was going to figure out how exactly they function and hold together, it helps when they're not as fragile as rice paper and can take a little beating. Look, if you're trying to say something, just go for it. I hate when you dance around a subject like this."

Boris took a minute to compose himself, balling up his anger and putting it in the back of his head. Losing his temper with Bendy wasn't going to help anything.

"When I found Alice, she took me down the other hallway. I know about Joey and Susie." Bendy's eyes actually widened at that "I know what you've been doing. I could see it clearly in the way the toons act. And I don't like it, _not one bit_. Do you honestly think I was going to be ok with any of this Benjamin?" He ignored the small Asian flinching at the name and leveled him with a stare.

Meanwhile, Bendy was thinking about the situation. He had hoped that Boris would be able to see what he was trying to do, or at the very least would support him like he usually did. Clearly he'd underestimated how much someone could change in ten years.

"Bendy, just stop this craziness before it's too late. None of this is a good idea, it's going to blow up in your face and you're going to drag everyone into it."

'He wants me to stop? But I'm so close to making a breakthrough! I just-' Bendy paused at that thought. He wasn't getting close to anything actually. Since Joey and Susie managed to escape, he had only Henry for his experiments, which limited how much he could do and how often. He _had_  tried to catch his wayward creations, but they had developed strange abilities, such as Joey's strange relationship with ink, that kept them one step ahead.

Maybe it was for the best to stop for now? He'd need some time to convince Boris (and Alice, if he was right about how involved she was) what he was trying to accomplish, and it wasn't like he would be losing out on valuable research. And if he played his cards right, perhaps he could get his hands on all three toons again?

"Alright Boris, I'll stop." Boris narrowed his eyes at the smaller man. His tone was one would use when indulging a child, sweet and syrupy. Sure, he would go along for now, but he was clearly only doing it for Boris's amusement. He wouldn't complain though, this was a good enough start to getting Bendy to realize what he was messing with. He was stubborn like a mule about being right, and getting him to admit his wrongdoings was like pulling teeth.

"Come on then, let's go. I'm going to go get Alice, wait for us  in your office ok?"


	4. Chapter 4

They ended up meeting Alice and Joey in the hallway.

_**"You!!!"** _

Things could have definitely gone better.

Joey didn't hesitate a moment and immediately flung himself at Bendy, the ink on the floor rising to swirl around him like a vicious snake. With a unearthly growl no living thing should be able to make, he grabbed the small Asian with a large hand formed out of ink, pinned him to the wall, and started to _squeeze hard_.

Boris immediately sprang into action, grabbing the violent toon despite the thrashing ink surrounding him, and pulled him of Bendy. Joey was having none of it and fought back, biting and clawing like a man possessed. 

 **"What the f#ck are you doing?! Let me go Boris! You know what that freak did to us, is going to again if given the smallest chance! He doesn't deserve to live after what he's done!** **So help me I refuse to rest until he's  f#cking dead!!"** Boris paid no attention to the angry angel and simply tightened his grip on the small but powerful toon. He motioned to Alice, who had backed up immediately the instant she realized what was going to happen.

"Go make sure he's fine OK? I need to have a chat with Joey, and probably Susie." Without waiting for an ansew he marched of in the direction of the room they were using. Joey very slowly stopped fighting before slumped heavily in his arms, clearly exhausted by his previous actions. He still managed to find the energy to glare harshly at Boris.

 **"I thought you said you were going to help us. Was it just a lie?"** He sounded annoyed, but mostly hurt underneath.

The redhead simply gave the angel a look. "Helping you out isn't the same as agreeing to murder someone for their actions. I won't deny it, Bendy's done some awful things, but killing him isn't something I'm willing to allow. We're going to be having a serious discussion about this." With that the discussion was closed. Seeing he wasn't going to get anywhere, the small angel huffed before relaxing just a bit.

. . . 

Five people were seated at various points in the studio's main office.

Bendy was in the large chair, tending to the large bruises on his neck and chest.

Alice was leaning against the entrance to make sure they weren't interrupted, the only sign of her nervousness the constant tapping of her foot.

Boris was seated across from his oldest friend with Joey held tightly in his lap to keep the small toon from doing anything rash. Joey for his part was attempting to bore a hole in Bendy's skull with his glare alone.

Susie had made herself comfortable on the small coffee table in the room, ignoring everyone in favor of filing her nails. Occasionally she would glance at Bendy's injuries and grin.

Bendy carefully removed the ice off his bruised neck before clearing his throat. "So, now that our "exciting" little meet and greet is over, what exactly is the we're trying trying to accomplish? I'm all ears." You could _feel_ the condescending tone. Joey growled lowly under his breath, but simply intensified his glare. The inkwell on the table was starting to shake.

Boris stroked the annoyed angel's head, hoping to calm him a bit, before turning his attention to Bendy. He really hoped this wasn't something he'd have to deal with too often. "Can you at least  _try_ not to be an unbearable ass? Stop trying to provoke a negative reaction Bendy" It would be easier to keep the toons from going on a murderous rampage without him constantly trying to piss them off.

Susie immediately spoke up before anyone else could comment. **"Mr. Boris says you're willing to play nice for now so we have to go along. I would rather string you up by your intestines, but as much as I don't like it we still need you. We need you to oversee Henry's recovery."** Joey actually stopped glaring to give the she-devil a quizzical look. Susie simply raised an eyebrow at him.

Joey let out an an annoyed groan before turning to properly face Boris. **"Dollface has a point. While I would love to paint the walls red with this freak's blood, he's literally the only person that can make sure Henry's healing right. Alice doesn't have the necessary knowledge for that."** The displeased expression was proof enough he didn't like admitting any of this. He turned around to glare at Bendy once more.

Bendy simply nodded, but not before rolling his eyes and chuckling softly. "Anything else I can do for you?" Susie actually got up from her spot, dropping her nail file behind her back, and jumped onto the table and grabbed Bendy's face harshly, not being one bit careful with his injuries. She had an utterly furious look on her face and spoke in a barely audible growl.

 **"While I acknowledge that you're needed, I wouldn't leave my worst enemy to your "tender mercies". You will not be left unsupervised with Henry for even a second under any circumstances, I don't care if it breaks your concentration or what not. You will not approach any of us without our permission, we only tolerate you because Mr. Boris is protecting your sorry behind. I also want all the keys to the secret hallway. No one without explicit permission from both me and Joey get to go down there. Especially _you_." ** With that she jumped onto Boris and perched herself on his shoulder, took out a compact mirror and started to fix her lipstick. Boris didn't even spare her a glance.

"Those are the terms the toons have agreed to. So Benjamin, are you going to be able to fulfill them, or are you going to cause trouble again?" He gave Bendy a look that wasn't quite a glare, but pretty close.

Bendy simply winced. "Yeesh you don't have to pull out the Look Boris. I'll play nice, promise!" He reached into a drawer and pulled out three keys. With little fanfare he handed them over to Boris.

"If you don't mind, it's been a busy day. I've still got some business details to look over with Alice. I'll check up on Henry first thing in the morning, k?"

Boris nodded and got up, not bothering with telling the toons to get off. They actually seemed quite relaxed draped all over the taller man. He spared a quick glance at his two friends, who where discussing something over some folders, before making his way to the secret hallway to check on Henry. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've reached the point were my one piece of paper with this thing's storyline becomes hella vague. I have no clue how to properly move to the next relevant plot point. I would like to do some slife of life stuff, but things are waaay to tense right now for that to end any other way than a complete disaster.  
> At least exams are over, thank God for small mercies.


	5. Chapter 5

Three week had gone by, and things were going better. Not great, but better.

Henry was very slowly healing, looking tired and worn-out instead of dead on his feet. Apparently there was  _a lot_ of damage Bendy hadn't bother dealing with as it wasn't necessary for his research. Boris had to drag the two other toons out before they decided to hell with the agreement and brutally murder him when _that_ particular comment was made.

The angel and devil duo where slowly starting to relax. They refused to stay within earshot of Bendy and still made death threats, especially when he was tending to Henry, but their current behavior was a far cry from the mad creatures that looked ready to kill anyone that looked even a little suspicious. Boris counted that as a win.

Alice was appointed Henry's main caretaker, mostly since the toons didn't trust anyone else with the task, not even Boris. Henry was still mostly sleeping, so she was easily able to keep an eye on him and do her various duties, but Boris was certain she would continue doing fine when Henry was bit healthier and moving around.

Most surprising was that the rest of the studio was pleasantly surprised when Joey and Susie showed up. Apparently the toons used to hang out with the crew, and though none of them seemed to be aware of what exactly the toons were or where they came from, they had gotten quite worried when they basically dropped off the face of the earth. While shocked and confused with their uncharacteristic hostility, they were mostly relieved. Many even sent their condolences over Henry's condition.

Boris was seated in the main office, trying to fight off his pounding headache while enjoying the momentary peace and quiet. He was certain Alice was going to storm in any minute now with news of another fight. Hands down one of the biggest problems was tension and friction between Bendy and the toons, which was starting to get way out of hand. It had taken him a full hour and physically picking the toons up and leaving the room to stop the last near murder incident. It was starting to get incredibly exhausting.

Unfortunately there wasn't much he could do at the moment since Bendy was the main perpetrator, and Lord knows getting him to stop was like trying to separate a bulldog from its favorite chewtoy. He knew the toons were immensely aggressive, especially towards him, but Bendy had apparently decided to see how far he could push the limits of the agreement, taunting them, making all sorts of comments and constantly going out of his way to rile them up. It was starting to go from annoying to problematic for everyone stuck between this mess.

Even more headache inducing was that despite numerous warnings Bendy was unwilling to back off , constantly getting in the toons space and practically daring them to do something about it, which let to more of the aforementioned murder attempts, which in turn caused the tension to increase again. Boris was  _sorely_ tempted to just let the toons give Bendy what he was asking for, but he couldn't in good conscience let that happen if it could be avoided. Even if it would probably solve about 70% of the problems they had to deal with.

Alice suddenly poked her head through the door, a panicked expression on her face.

Boris groaned, but got up and started to follow her to where the trouble was this time.

. . . 

Boris let out a curse when Alice brought him to the inking section of the studio. This was  _bad, very very bad!_ Joey's strange ability to manipulate ink made it the worst place for a fight to break out, giving the small toon more than enough ammo to strike hard and fast. He had to move quickly before things got out of control. The situation was already pretty bad when he finally got there, but he was glad to see the room was still intact (the last fight here had ruined months of work, and the toons were still feeling guilty.)

The people still in the room where pressed up against the wall, none of them willing to get anywhere close to the fight that was happening. Joey had pulled most of the ink present in the room to himself and had Bendy pinned to the floor with a good chunk of it. Susie was standing over him and smiling, a sharp pitchfork in hand poised to strike down and pierce his head. He'd have to deal with that first.

"Susie.." he started, careful not to spook her as he moved closer. Her only reaction was to tighten her death grip. "I need you to put the pitchfork away, now." She slowly made eye contact with him, the disturbing smile never wavering. Joey had raised his head and was watching him as well. Boris simply raised an eyebrow and waited for their next move.

 **"He said said Henry should just _die already._ If this freak isn't keeping his end of the deal, neither should we."** Joey punctuated his words with a sharp glare, the ink holding Bendy down constricting. Boris could feel his blood boil and anger intensify, _he didn't_.

Well, that complicated matters. While Joey and Susie didn't like Bendy on a good day, getting Henry involved was never a good idea. He'd honestly thought that Bendy wouldn't be stupid enough to poke that particular dragon, but it seemed like he'd underestimated how far the small man was willing to go to prove the toons shouldn't be given so much freedom.

" I know what he said hurt, but _please_ , don't let him bait you." Boris carefully got to his knees and opened his arms a bit. "Let's go visit Henry for a bit, ok?" He kept his gaze firmly on the toons as he waited for a response. 

Suddenly, with a small flick of Joey's wrist, the ink flew of Bendy and return to its original place. The small angel took a second to glare some more at the small Asian on the floor and practically flew into Boris's arms, hugging the tall redhead tightly. Susie had finally stopped smiling and was staring at her pitchfork. Wordlessly, she placed it behind her (hammerspace, if he recalled correctly) and flung herself into the embrace as well. The two toons were hugging him almost painfully tight, the frustration and anger coming off them almost unbearable, but Boris didn't say anything.

Boris carefully got up, and with a harsh glare that had Bendy flinching, he started to make his way to the secret hallway. He was not in the mood to deal with Bendy's bullshit for at least two days. Hopefully Alice would be willing to put up with him while Boris took the time to get it together before _he_ tried to maim him. 


	6. Chapter 6

Boris slowly made his way to the hallway, taking his time in an attempt to cool his rage. He couldn't even be amused with Joey and Susie not getting into a fight over who got to sit on his shoulder like they usually did. Was it really too much for Bendy to leave the toons alone for Pete's sake?!

The two toons where uncharacteristically quiet, their aura of hatred replaced with one of heavy sorrow and deep grief. As much as they didn't like to show it, everyone knew they were terrified out of their minds at the thought of Henry not making it. Henry was the only character to consistently care about them and their wellbeing in the cartoons, and the duo was almost desperately avoiding thinking about what they would even do if he didn't make.

They finally made it to the room the toons had declared theirs, which was at the end of their hallway. Apparently they used it to rest often. It was spacious, with two shelves, a trunk and a large table in the middle. Scattered about where various things, from books to games, now the toons didn't have to worry about leaving a trail. Sleeping soundly on the single cot in the corner was Henry. He startled awake before relaxing.

 **"Hi guys, what brings you here at this time of day?"** He blinked owlishly at them before noticing how tense they all where. That got his attention, and he carefully moved to sit at the table.  **"What happened this time? Did you two start a fight with Mr. Damian again?"** And there was the cause of about 20% of the current problems. Despite everything, Henry was firmly on Bendy's side. Even worse was that he kept trying to get his friends to see things his way, that they must've done something wrong and should be trying to make up for it. Needless to say, Joey and Susie were not happy with that development _at all_.

Boris was very concerned about the cat's mental health. His behavior reminded him too much of a friend with a very abusive spouse, who had convinced the poor thing that everything that went wrong was her fault somehow. He  _really_ hoped that the problem could be dealt with before things got crazy. He dropped the toons still clinging to him on the table and took a seat, trying to will away his headache.

Joey immediately cuddled up to Henry, gritting his teeth and wrapping Henry's paws around himself. Susie took a moment retrieve the book she'd been reading and sat down next to them, tail waving around agitatedly.  **"Things are going _just fine_. How are you feeling today Henry?"**  

Boris only paid half of his attention to the toons. They where such an interesting group to watch, especially since he remembered coming up with certain quirks and small details that showed, like Joey clinging to Henry like the cat was his favorite plush and Susie's gigantic sweet tooth. It really hammered in the point that they were living, breathing people, not just puppets they could move around at their whims. He was startled out of his thoughts when Susie poked him with the tip of her tail.

**"Hey Boris, we're discussing which other toon we'd like to bring into the human world. Thoughts? I've picked Wally the Mutt, he's so sassy, yet easily tricked into inadvertently helping me. Joey want to bring Norman the Bull for some weird reason."**

**"It's cause he tolerates me Susie. He know my "sweet and innocent" act is well, an act, and that I'm  a horrible guardian angel, but as long as I'm not getting him involved in my latest prank he's nice to be around. Henry deserves a break from me every now and then."**

Susie nodded solemnly at that. Henry tightened his hold on the small toon and pulled Susie into the hug, nuzzling both of them fondly. **"You don't need to do that, you know that right? If nobody else in town can see past your behavior, then they don't deserve you."** The trio laughed softly, simply enjoying each others presence. Despite everything going on, they were definitely at their happiest when in the same room. It took a whole week to convince Joey and Susie to leave Henry's side. 

"Well, I'd pick Henry, but he's already here. How about Sammy the sheep?" The reaction to his simple comment was instantaneous. Susie blinked slowly before giving him a thumbs up. Joey gave him a look of utter betrayal and made a frankly ridiculous squeaking sound. Henry blushed before starting to fiddle with his tail,  one of his ticks when shy. Joey broke the silence first.

**"No! This is a no sheep zone, he's not welcome, I refuse to let him come over here!"**

So Joey's contempt for Sammy was still there? That kinda sucked, the musical sheep was one of his favorite characters. "Uhm, Sammy's not that bad, any particular reason for that verdict Joey?" The small toon puffed out his cheeks, looking like a small child being told to share.

 **"He, he's awful?! Words cannot describe how absolutely annoying that sheep is! He's always going on about how I need to behave, gets sooo huffy when he's writing his stupid songs, and he keeps inviting himself over to Henry's house!"** Susie choose that moment to interject, a wide smirk across her painted lips.

 **"Oh hush little angel, you only dislike him because he takes Henry's attention away from you."** Joey's normal blush deepened to a dark grey and covered most of his face. He immediately turned his attention to the still smirking she-devil.

**"Shut up Susie! You do the exact same thing!"**

**"Yes, but at least I'm honest about it and don't make up reasons to dislike Henry's boyfriend. He's not going to choose between us and Sammy, calm down already."** _That_ caught Boris's attention.

"Boyfriend?" Susie gave him a look, pondering. Then she snapped her fingers. 

**"You know what? You're absolutely right, they're practically married at this point. Does that make me and Joey the kids in this family situation? Joey's definitely short enough to fit the bill."**

While the toons where distracted whit their argument (well, Susie and Joey's argument. Henry was trying to get them to stop), Boris let his thoughts wander again. He wasn't really sure how to feel about this recent development, though he did know some people from his army days that swung that way and he was pretty sure Alice was similar, but he had no room to judge. Besides, it wasn't his place to tell ink creatures from a cartoon who they could or couldn't date.

He got up, glad to note his headache had mostly disappeared. "I'm going to get Alice, play nice while I'm gone ok?" He ignored the faux insulted comments and went of to get Alice. Hopefully he wouldn't run into Bendy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've taken to listening to music streams when writing. Not as distracting as I thought I'd would be. Next chapter's gonna be a doozy.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've consulted the piece of paper with this thing's plot and apparently the doozy doesn't happen yet. Good thing I checked.

In the end Boris needed three days to calm down before he was willing to deal with Bendy again. He felt awful for letting his temper get the better of him, but he needed it.

On the second of those three days Henry was declared well enough to leave the room. He was still on a long road to full recovery, but not being holed up in the basement was doing the cat good, especially since Joey and Susie had started showing him what the studio was currently working on. With it came a rather obvious piece of information that Boris hadn't thought about too much, at least until things started getting out of hand.

"Susie I swear to whatever god you believe in, if you don't tell me where you've put all the chairs I will end you!!"

Susie and Joey were unapologetic pranksters.

"Miss Saint, Mr Wolfric, Henry's painted all over the main entrance's wall! Where did he even get so many watercolor paints?!"

And even Henry  _really_ liked to mess with the "silly humans".

"GOD DAMMIT JOEY! WHERE DID YOU PUT THE STRING INSTRUMENTS!? THEY WERE HERE A LITERAL MINUTE AGO!!"

Could you blame him though? They were so well behaved. Everyone had apparently forgotten that they were  _cartoon creatures_. Messing around and screwing with people was in their very nature, even in the mostly sane man character that Henry was.

"Boris get out here! Tell the angel to put back all the lunches he's stolen!"

This was going to keep happening wasn't? He almost wished that they were trying to attack Bendy again.

. . .

Boris gave Susie a Look. She simply smiled sweetly and looked up at him through her eyelashes. He knew that she knew he wasn't buying her "how could I have done it, don't you send how sweet and innocent I am?" act, but he was willing to admit the halo was a nice touch (he suspected she had swiped Joey's when he wasn't paying attention.) 

"Susie Devil Darling, why did you hide all the ink and replace it with invisible ink?" She gave him a very convincing look of distraught as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, but he knew she was messing around. It was her Thing, causing trouble and making a pouty face to get out of facing the consequences. 

 **"I'm so sorry Boris, I just wanted to help. But all I do is mess things up for everyone else, don't I?"** She wailed pitifully and pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at her tears. He caught her glancing at him to see if he was buying the ruse now.

"I'm giving you till the count of ten to stop. One. Two. Three. Fou-" Susie let out a groan, tears gone and halo floating lopsidedly.

 **"Fine! Great Movement you're no fun, has anyone ever told you that?"** He simply rolled his eyes at her.

"Yes, I've been told numerous times. Now where on earth did you put all of that ink? You don't have a secret hiding spot already do you?" Susie reached behind her and pulled out a few bottles of ink.

 **"Oh don't throw a tantrum, it's all in my pocket."** Boris gave her an unimpressed look.

"Haven't I told you to stop putting things that don't belong into your hammerspace?" Before she could answer a loud yell echoed through the halls.

 **"Suusieee!! Where did you put my halo!?!"** The she-devil paled dramatically and ran down the hall, leaving a dust cloud in her shape behind.

 **"Gotta go! I'll put the ink back in its place, promise!"** Boris watched as Joey ran by with a quick goodbye before continuing with his pursuit. He groaned and resisted the urge to smack his face. This whole toon logic thing was starting to get annoying.

. . .

Joey carefully tiptoed down the hall , hoping to avoid Alice and Boris. They tended to stay pretty late, so caution was absolutely necessary. He was almost at his goal, just little bit further!

"~Joey~" He immediately froze up. That sounded like Alice. Knowing that trying to lie his way out would probably piss her off, he quickly turned to where the sound was coming from. Sure enough Alice was leaning against an open door, a single eyebrow raised. He chuckled nervously as he scratched at the back of his head. Focus! Don't give a reason to think you're up to something!

**"Oh hiiii Alice! Didn't see ya there! What brings you to the neighborhood huh?"**

I work here, remember? Pray tell, what are you doing wandering around at this time of night?" Oh sh#t, she's on to him! Abort, abort mission! Joey nonchalantly (at least he hoped)straightened his halo as if it were a hat. Play it cool, she can smell your fear.

 **You know me, always trying to sneak a peak at the latest finished pieces. What can I say? I love watching this cute face show off."** He smiled widely at her, hoping she hadn't caught where he was going. Alice simply gave him a fond look and reached down to mess up his curly hair.

"Well why didn't you say so? I can take you, I've got some time to spare and I was just about ready to leave." She held out a hand, daring him to try to talk his way out. She knew what he was trying to do.

Chuckling nervously, he grabbed hold of the offered hand. He spared a small glance at the main office. That freak was gonna get what was coming to him sooner or later. He just need some time to set things up.

. . .

"Mr Wolfric, Henry's run off."

Boris blinked and looked up at Lauren, one of the animators, who had a very confused look on her face. "What do you mean Lauren?"

"Well, apparently Chrissy mentioned Henry need to get all that paint washed off, then he froze and asked if he could just dab at it with a towel. Then she mentioned that he'd probably need a bath and he made a run for it. We haven't seen him since." Good grief, the one sane toon that didn't seem to think messing with people's things was normal was AWOL. With a sigh he got up.

"Tell Alice I'm going to start looking for him." Lauren nodded at him and went off.

Three hours later his quiet search was disrupted by a shriek coming from a few room  further. He quickly ran to see what the situation was and froze as he tried to process _what_  exactly he was seeing. 

The shrieking was coming from Henry, who had a look of wide-eyed horror etched into his face as he desperately tried to get out of the iron grip Alice had on him. She was covered in paint and scratch marks and her eye was twitching fiercely as she tried to keep a hold of the panicking cat. As soon as she saw him Alice made a beeline for him and pushed the still freaking out cat into his arms.

"He's being ridiculous about taking a goddamn bath, _you deal with it_. I'm going to get this paint of and the scratches fixed up." With that she walked off, cursing in Italian under her breath. He turned his attention to Henry, who was still resisting fiercely.

"Henry, calm down. It's just a bath, you can't wander around looking like you rolled around in paint. You're getting cleaned up and that's  _final_." He marched off towards the hall, he was certain there was a bathroom down there. As much a Henry resisted, there wasn't much he could do about his fate except prolong the inevitable.

Three hours, two wet humans, three wet toons and a soaked bathroom floor later, Henry was curled up in a large towel, glaring at everyone. Everyone else was trying to get dry.

 **"I hate each and every last one of you, I'm not even kidding. Was it really necessary to wash off my spots to?!"** Indeed, Henry's fur was completely white. Joey, who was wringing out his soaked halo, let out a huff.

 **"** **Henry you know you don't have spots, it's all ink and black paint. You don't bother getting rid of them anymore cause you know you're just going to get your fur stained again."**

Everyone started laughing as Henry's glare doubled, but it was really hard to take him seriously since he looked like, well, a waterlogged cat. 

. . .

Yep, dealing with the toons now they were more comfortable was hard, but honestly, he wouldn't trade what he had right now for anything.


	8. Chapter 8

Boris was woken up from his sleep by the obnoxious ringing of his phone. He kept hoping that if he left it alone whoever was calling would stop, but alas. After taking a few minutes to curse out who he hell was calling him at four in the goddamn morning after a late night, he picked up.

"This better be good, I swear if this isn't important I will murder you."

"B-boris? A-are you there?!" Bendy? What was he doing calling at this time of day? "I need to to get to the studio, _now_. Please..." He sounded... distraught.

"Bendy, what's going on? What's happened?" He heard a sniffle,was he crying? 

"J-just get he-re, please. I've already called Alice, hurry." With that he hung up. Boris looked at his phone in confusion. He had a bad feeling about this.

. . .

_"Ok, that should be a simple enough start, let's try it. Now, hold still for me."_

**_"OK sir!"_**

 

 

**_"Aaaaaargh!! Ow ow OW, it hurts iT HURTS IT HUUURT!?!?!"_ **

_"UGH, I said HOLD STILL!"_

**_"I'm trying, I'm really trying!"_ **

 

_" Oh stop with the blubbering already! Be honest, do you want to help or not?!"_

**_"Of c-our-rse I do! Why would you think otherwise?!"_ **

_"Then get with the program!! Henry, I can't get the information I need if you keep misbehaving. I don't think you're taking this as serious as you should. I'm trusting you to help me out with this, the least you can do is cooperate with me."_

**_"I-i" cough cough "I-m s-s-sorr-y sir, I'll try my best, honest."_ **

_"That's a good kitty. Now, let's try this again alrighty? I promise it won't hurt if you just listen to my instructions. Any pain is probably because your moving around too much."_

_. . ._

Boris stood in front of the studio, bleary eyed and still exhausted. He'd met Alice halfway here and apparently she didn't know what had gotten into Bendy either. Though she did mention she heard him panicking and crying as he talked to someone close by. He really hoped Bendy hadn't tried something with the toons. They made their way down to the secret hallway, immediately noticing that the door was wide open. Oh no, Something must've happened.

Both of them immediately made a run for it. They could hear voices coming from the, right? That.. there must be some kind of mistake. The toons are the only ones allowed down here, and they don't like being in Bendy old section of the floor. They only went there because all of Bendy's equipment was there. They needed to find out what was going on,  _now._

. . .

_"YOU DID WHAT NOW?!?!'"_

**_wince "I-i let J-Joey and Susie go..."_ **

_"And why exactly did you let them go?!"_

**_"They said t-that you're cruel! I tried, I really did, b-but I couldn't convince them to be reasonable about it! They wouldn't listen to me, and I know they're probably going to start causing trouble for you, s-s-so I figured by letting them go everyone would be happy. Besides, you don't need them for your work, I'll-"_ **

_"I can't believe this! Willing or not, I can't make proper progress if I have only you to work with!! You do realize you are jeopardizing this entire project right?! Is that what you want?!"_

**_"N-o!! I m-essed up, I know I did, a-and I'm sorry, bu-"_ **

_"NO Henry! you've already caused a major screwup today, go back to the lab and think about how badly you've fucked up things today. I'll deal with your punishment later, after I see if I can get those two annoyances back under lock and key."_

**_"Y-yes, sir!"_ **

. . .

They slowly made their way down the hall, eyes scanning for every little detail. They had no idea what was going on, who was involved, and where things were happening. They approached where the sounds were coming from. It was the room where Boris had found Bendy in when he finally worked up the nerve to actually step foot inside the building. It used to Bendy's main experimentation lab.

But, that couldn't be right, they never used this room to check up on Henry and very occasionally the other toons, they'd even boarded it up. There were a lot of bad memories and triggers associated with that particular room, Henry would get immensely twitchy despite his insistence that he was fine when near it, and Joey And Susie would start to freak out and start have panick attacks when they wandered too close. Cautiously and ready for the worst, they slowly peered in and where absolutely shocked at what they were looking at.

. . .

_"Now remember, this is a very delicate procedure. I want you to promise me you'll do your best not to screw it up. This one is very important Henry, and since you let Joey and Susie go it falls into you to do the right thing."_

**_"Of course Mr Bendy, I promise I'll do my best!"_ **

_"Good, then let's get this show on the road."_

. . .

The room was cleaned up and Bendy's more horrifying medical tools were taking out of their hiding spot and carefully arranged on the tables. They finally noticed what was causing the noise they were hearing. Bendy was standing in the center of the room, alternating between loudly freaking out and silently staring into nothing. 

Joey was in the grips of an attack, clinging to a deadly pale and immensely shaken Susie as they huddled in one of the corners of the room, both of them were terrified out of their minds and visibly shaking. Their arms and legs were covered in welts and rope burns, most likely caused by the cut rope in front of Bendy's feet.

And Henry, Henry was seated on the operating table, nervously smiling at Bendy. His expression was quite at ease for someone that was shaking fiercely, his fur standing up.

Boris and Alice glanced at each other and swallowed hard. This was going to be, difficult didn't even begin to describe the bare minimum of this entire fucked up scenario. Boris found his voice first.

 _"What in God's name is going on. Explain, n o w..."_  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahahahaha I'm awful :D  
> I'd say I'm sorry, but mama didn't raise no liar.


	9. Chapter 9

_One hour before Boris's phonecall_

. . .

Benjamin Frederick Damian, despite popular belief, was well aware of his numerous character flaws and various shortcomings.

He was really bitchy about how things should be, constantly badgering talented people with more experience than him and knew what they were doing and generally being a pain in their backs.

He got unreasonable angry and would start throwing a fit over the smallest details.

He was distrustful and angry at the world and shamelessly forced Boris, the only person to give him the time of day back then, to be the only one to put any actual effort in their friendship. Not to mention that he often directed his frustrations on the poor man.

Sure he had an insanely creative and innovative mind, was a talented musician and dancer as well as an animator, and when working could preform miracles in ridiculous short amounts of time, but no one would say the good outweighed or even balanced out the bad.

So yes, Bendy knew how much of a selfish, bitter and condescending asshole he could be. It was a problem when he was younger and not charismatic enough that people would be willing to deal with him, and it would be a lie to say he was doing much better on his bad days. Unfortunately, the biggest problem he'd always had was that despite knowing all this, he would never admit any of it.

He's had a voice in the back of his head yelling at him since he decided to start cutting open his creations, but is was just easier to not think about it and cling to his flimsy justifications than confronting his mistakes. He stubbornly refused to admit that he felt awful for the things he'd done to the toons and that he wanted to do anything in his power and beyond to make up for it.

He convinced himself that seeing the equally scared and livid looks on his toons when they thought no one was paying attention to them didn't sting deep and kept taunting them, hoping they'd take the bait. It would be so much easier to hate them if he could convince himself that they were dangerous beasts he had to keep control over. He ignored the part of him that was absolutely sickened when he brought up Henry's condition to rile them up.

On a complete unrelated note, he still had no idea what to do with the balled up piece of paper with a rather cryptic message scrawled on and the key he found on his desk. He knew it was one of the secret hallway's keys, but what on God's green earth was it doing here?!

He read through the message again.

 

_Please use the key included and sneak down into the hallway._

_I'll meet you in the old lab and explain what's going on then._

 

He did not trust it at all, who would even do this?! Joey and Susie were the ones who decided who got the keys, and he highly doubted they would willingly risk one for the revenge plot he was certain awaited him down there. 

But, the curiosity to find out who was calling him and what they wanted him to see was overwhelming.

He was going to do this. Reasons not too be damned, his interest was peeked and he wanted to know more. He was pretty sure he was walking into a deathtrap, but it would be interesting to see what they came up with.

. . .

After a half hour of twiddling his thumbs, Bendy made his way down into the hallway, almost forgetting that he had a key and didn't need to wait for Alice or Boris to open up for him. After an embarrassing  four minutes, he made his way to the lab. He was confused when he saw the boards were gone, but didn't think much about it. A shame really.

If he had kept his guard up he would have been immensely shaken instead of needing to restart his thought process before alternating from horrified to absolutely livid with seconds between the two dominant emotional responses.

The room wasn't dusty as he expected. In fact, it looked like it had been thoroughly cleaned very recently. All of his old equipment was polished and put on the tables to the side to the specifications he used so he could get what he needed without fumbling around like a drunk looking for his keys. Seated on the operating table and patiently waiting were his toons, his beloved creations.

Well, saying they were sitting and patiently waiting would be a very generous statement indeed. Henry was, but Joey and Susie were tied up painfully tight and struggling in vain to get out of their bonds, looking absolutely terrified out of their minds. If the amount of bruising was anything to go by, they'd been trying unsuccessfully for a while now. When they noticed him standing frozen in the door, Joey and Susie found it in themselves to double their efforts, muffled cries filling the eerie silence of the room.

Henry smiled at him despite how badly he was shaking. He grabbed his fellow toons and dragged to the middle of the room before leaving them there, struggling. Then he approached the still stunned Bendy and pulled him closer into the room.

**"You made it! I was concerned you wouldn't come... But I knew you wouldn't stay away!"**

Bendy was still frozen, but he found his will to speak what was desperately swimming through his head. "Henry? What is going on? What are you doing?!" The cat gave him a sweet but creepily blank smile.

**"Well, I know you can't really do much with just me helping out,so I decided it was about time that Joey and Susie started getting with the program. You were right about letting them go, if it's up to them they won't be reasonable about it. I understand now. I'll figure out a way to get rid of Boris and Alice soon. Then we can get back on track with the program."** He sounded so proud of himself. 

Bendy honestly has no idea what the rest of Henry's justification for his actions were. He shoved him aside and stumbled to the table, blindly grabbed one of the knives, and turned around and cut the two toons out as quick as he could. He made no comment about how they ran for the corner, and didn't pay much attention to Henry who was seated on the operating table again giving him a extremely hurt and confused look.

He couldn't deal with this.

_He couldn't deal with this!!!!_

He ran out the door and to his office. He needed someone, anyone, to come help him deal with this! He didn't remember who he called.

"This better be good, I swear if this isn't important I will murder you."

He didn't care.

After ending the call (wait, what exactly did he say??) He ran back to the lab. He didn't know what Henry was going to do if left unsupervised, but he couldn't leave any of them down there. Even if he probably wasn't the best choice, he would have to do until someone else came.

Henry was smiling at him now, Joey was almost unresponsive, and he was pretty certain Susie was honest to god crying. He simply stood in the room, alternating violently between watching numbly and screaming his throat bloody as his mind kept making the entire situation worse.

This was going to be a long, busy night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now for something completely different and irrelevant: 
> 
> DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES DUCKTALES


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> O_o have I seriously written over 10k already?! In other news, DuckTales was amazing!!

While most people tended to think of things in terms of bad days, Boris tended to group his experiences into bad weeks. It was a rather strange system, but one that worked out pretty good for him.

The week he caught a fierce flu and he was stuck in bed, unable to move.

The week his father was being extra nasty, so his mother made him go visit his aunt until things calmed down. He spent that entire week convinced he would be going home to her funeral.

The week during school where everything that could go wrong did go wrong, from ruining his uniform to throwing up on the cutest girl in class after eating a bad lunch.

The week he finally told Bendy that he enlisted in the war, the subsequent fight and fallout,  and how he ended up cutting ties with his best friend and many others he cared about for a decision he ended up regretting the moment they put a gun in his hands. 

The first week back at the studio spent juggling keeping the toons happy and attempting to talk some sense into the stubborn ass that is Benjamin Damian. 

While he didn't want to risk jinxing it, he was convinced things could not get worst. Considering that he was deciding if he should get blackout drunk or not with a coin toss, he'd definitely found a new worst week.

He and Alice had spent the entire morning and a good chunk of the afternoon that day just getting everyone calmed down. The next day was split between checking up on them and getting rid of Bendy's old equipment for good. The days after that Alice had her hands full running things in Bendy's place and Boris was stuck having to keep an eye on them all while simultaneously keeping the toons from doing anything impulsive, mainly that Joey kept trying to kill a pretty much catatonic Bendy in a terrified panick while Henry kept trying to sneak out, most likely to see if he could recover some of Bendy's things they where being throwing out.

He looked at his coin. Heads.

Well then, looks like he'd be dealing with this sober. Oh happy days.

The voice in his head was back again, but instead of voicing his guilt about thinking he was the reason Bendy went off the deep end, it was stating a painful, simple truth.

_He had seen this coming and still didn't do anything about it until it was too late._

Alice had filled him in on what she knew and Bendy hadn't bothered with lying to him about what happened. The toons were created seven years ago, the experiments started five years after that, and Joey and Susie had been able to hide for eleven months. How breathtakingly stupid and naive to think that stopping the experiments would solve everything. You could take the monster out of someone's life, but the scars and memories were not so easily dealt with.

He saw how despite their bluster and goofy antics, the toons were still incredibly jumpy and distrustful weeks after he showed up. He should have stayed to make sure they were doing ok during that stressful first week at the very least, but instead he went home every night, convincing himself that there wasn't anything to worry about.

The toons spent most of their time locked up in the hallway, away from everyone. He should've at the very least asked for one of the keys so he could get in during an emergency, but he didn't even voice his concerns and let them isolate themselves down there.

He noticed that the toons reacted negative towards the lab room. He didn't try to talk to them about their fears or even ask about it and simply kept them away from there, as if that would get rid of the memories. 

He noticed that Henry was paying close attention to the rooms when he went in for his checkups, a calculative gleam in his eyes that reminded him of Bendy figuring out how best to approach a situation so much it almost hurt. He just ignored this, straight up ignored this and told himself he was seeing things.

He had seen how things were nearing their boiling point, but simply told himself that the likelihood of it actually happening was fairly low  _and not to worry about it._

He was distantly aware he was harshly yanking at his hair, but he couldn't be bothered to try and stop right now. A handful of hair wasn't worth the trouble right now. He was supposed to stop these kinds of things from happening, he promised to do anything in his power to help better the situation. And yet he did nothing, and now there was even more trauma to deal and cope with. 

Susie spent a lot of her time crying, which was just immensely strange to say about the she-devil. It was hard to connect the charmingly manipulative sweetheart with this emotional wreck of a creature that had to be dragged out of bed more often than not.

Joey was emotionally in turmoil,  confused as to why the person he considered the greatest thing to walk the earth was happy to sell out him, his sister in nature, and himself to a lunatic that saw them as nothing but things that belonged to him and still unsure who exactly to blame for what happened, Bendy or Henry.

Henry had quite obviously developed significantly more issues than they'd ever thought to anticipate that they simply hadn't acknowledged, and Boris didn't have to be a professional to know the cat was seriously messed up because of it. He still wasn't sure how to deal with him.

And Bendy had finally reached the breaking point of how much longer he was able to dig in his heels and not admit defeat, but the extreme circumstances had completely knocked him off balance. He was having trouble with just keeping it together long enough to tell Alice about small but necessary details while she covered for him, something that would have normally triggered a fit, but he just looked horrified at them, though it was better than when he look numb and sickened with himself.

It was all his fault. He could have stopped all of this if he just put his god damn foot down and actually made them at least  _try_  work out the plethora of issues they had, but he just watched passively like he always did, stubbornly refusing to do anything until he was forced. He didn't like forcing people to do things, but he thought he had learned by now that sometimes his well meant behavior just made things so much worse.  

He was startled when he felt a pair of hands grab his own and gently pried them out of his hair. When he looked up, Alice was giving him a looked that managed to be both sympathetic and angry.

"Jesus Christ freckles, you messed up big time." The words stung, but Alice was never one for platitudes and had no problem with rubbing salt into wounds, the woman was unapologetically vicious when annoyed even to her closest friends. Thank goodness that Bendy didn't mind, talented or not, her behavior would have her kicked out of pretty much any workplace.

"Boris, why didn't you tell me what was going on? You do know the agreement is still going right?" 

The agreement?? Oh! The deal he made with her when all three of them were out of school concerning Bendy's behavior! Boris was much too soft to reign in his troublemaking friend, and Alice just couldn't be consistently relied upon to stop him as she didn't see a problem with his behavior. Whenever Boris noticed that things were going awry, he'd inform Alice as soon as possible and she'd be the one to talk (and occasionally smack) some sense into their mutual friend. They ended up generalizing it when they figured that between Boris's uncanny ability to sniff out what could cause trouble before things went south and Alice being very good at getting people to listen to her, a lot of trouble could be avoided.

 "Well?" 

Why hadn't he? He could have told her what was going to happen and she definitely would have found a way not only to avoid it, but would probably force all four of them to start working out their issues without being prompted.

"I. I don't know Alice..."

He just couldn't figure out how he let things get to bad. How he could ignore all the hints and signs and believe himself when he said it probably wouldn't happen.

"I don't know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've veered waaay off from the original plotline I've outlined for this thing, and the muse is not amused. I hope she has pity on me soon.


	11. Chapter 11

If fifteen years ago someone came up to Alice and told her that Bendy and Boris would have a god awful fight and go separate ways, Bendy would eventually create ink creatures through "very questionable" methods before going off the metaphorical cliff, and that eventually she'd help his creations hide, well.

She'd deck them and hold them down until whatever psychiatric facility they had escaped from came around to collect them.

Now that that exact scenario was her life, well.

She'd still deck them, because that kind of information should not be out and she'd need to have a conversation about where they found out before advising them they'd better keep their mouth shut unless they wanted something bad to happen.

Running the studio was hard work as usual, but since Bendy tended to run off to check on things personally she had a lot of experience doing things in his place. For her it was more like treading water much longer than usual than the plunge into the deep end it would be for most. At least one thing was being handled without any major problems.

All the toons were still wrecked from the emotional trauma, though it looked like Susie would be the first to get it together, and both Boris and Bendy were quite busy digging themselves deeper into the proverbial hole, so as usual she had to be the sane one. That could be annoying, but Alice prided herself on her skill in the face of adversity. Now if only the rest of their merry band of screwups could start getting it together.

People could be so troublesome, they were tiring on good days and soul sucking on worse. Complete strangers seemed to think they could demand she behave in a proper way for a lady such as herself and even those she was close with thought that they should warn her about her behaviour being unfitting and that she should at least pretend to be normal. Sometimes Alice wonders why she bothered with them.

Oh right, because despite everything she said, she genuinely cared. Especially for her two best friends, even if she always thought that they were a disaster waiting to happen and had initially started paying attention to them just to see the inevitable fallout. (It just sounded like such an obviously problematic friendship. An unapologetic troublemaker and the only person that could reign them in, but unwilling to do so.)

Alice openly admitted that she was no good with interpersonal relationships and sure didn't make dealing with her simple. She was rude, did whatever she felt like with little regard for what people thought of her for doing so (from slapping the perv that thought they were entitled to a dance to openly flirting with cute waitresses), and had a hard time "getting" how friendships worked. Maybe that why at the time she didn't see that Boris and Bendy, despite looking bad on paper, were the greatest example of true friends she could think of even with the fight.  

After making sure freckles was certain he wasn't going to do something stupid, she made her way to the office to check on Bendy, Alice had a feeling he hadn't left yet. She found him curled up in one of the corners, huddled underneath a thick quilt.

"So, how are you doing? Need anything, water, some actual food?" He simply shook his head. Alice let out a deep sigh and made her way to him, making sure her steps were audible. When she was kneeling in front of him, she slowly and carefully took the quilt of off of him. He hadn't improved much, still looking red and tears staining his face and sleeves.

"Are you sure you don't need anything?" He let out a low mumble before burrowing his head in his arms, unwilling to look at her as he sobbed. Alice carefully sat down next to him and started to rub his back. Words weren't needed for now, he just needed a steadying presence to ground him. That was fine, the workday was only just over and they had more than enough time. He didn't speak until almost an hour later.

"I should leave, all I do I m-mess up. Can't even admit to it until I have a fucking breakdown either. Thing will be so much better if I just leave." Alice startled at that and turned to look at him. He was dead serious. She raised an eyebrow at him and tilted his head to force him to look at her.

"So you're going to run away? Not even stick around to see what you can do to help?" Bendy laughed bitterly at that.

"Ain't nothing I can fix Alice, and I can't pretend like nothing's wrong anymore. It's better th-" He was stopped by Alice softly slapping his cheek, a furious expression on her face. Confused, he looked at her and waited for her to explain herself. She let out an angry huff before continuing.

"You silly idiot, I'm not saying to go back to how things were. I'm saying you're  _not supposed to give up trying to make amends_. Yes, you have monumentally screwed up, no one's denying that. But giving up because you can't make the mistakes you've made disappeared is not an option." She looked him straight in the eyes, fiery orbs meeting dead ones. She happily noticed a spark of hope in his eyes.

Bendy furiously scrubbed at his eyes. "Allie, do you really think I should try? Even if I somehow, by some miracle, manage to help out, will it be worth it? No matter how well things go, it will  _never erase_  the numerous mistakes I've made. The things I've done will _never_ be forgivable." Alice surprised him by pulling him into a tight hug. She carefully stroked his hair as she spoke softly and gently.

"Yes, what you've done isn't forgivable, but you're supposed to try to make up for it, no matter what. Deciding not to do anything because you've already fucked up is an _awful_ way to live life. I've seen good people never better themselves because they don't think it's worth it, because no matter what people will still remember their mistakes. I don't want to see you go down that path, no one here wants to see you go down that path." She ignored his renewed tears and simply held him tight.

"Look, me and Boris are going to actually try to keep this from happening ever again. For now, focus on pulling yourself together. And when all four of you are doing better, we're going to have a proper discussion. It's not going to be easy, you may end up hurting them again, but you can't give up, ok?" Alice felt him nod and finally return the hug. 

Her entire career here was one ridiculous mess after the other, but she quite liked it that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The muse is still upset with me, but was willing to entertain me for the time being. God I hope she stops being upset soon.  
> In other news, why do I break things I don't have the skills to fix?! Send help.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into the psyche of the victims of this mess.

Henry felt like he was drowning.

No, that didn't even begin to scratch the surface of what was happening.

If one were to be dramatic, Henry was but a small kitten swept up in the grips of a terrible, violent storm, each singular wave representing another idea clamoring in his head, and each and every single one of them threatening to pull him under with no chance to escape.

That was a little bit better.

Henry sat motionless on the table, staring at the still blank piece of paper Boris had given him three days ago. Normally he'd already have something presentable done in a few minutes, but he couldn't bring himself to do anything. Even now his paws shook lightly. Alice was still hiding from the world, Joey was staring into space, and Boris was going to come check on them soon unless something happened to Bendy.

In the violent maelstrom that was his mind, one thought in particular threatened to swallow him in an inescapable whirlpool. How could he have done that?! How could he have thought what he was doing wasn't wrong, but necessary?!

Henry knew that he wasn't the same cat that was "born" in this reality so many years ago. He wasn't exactly right in the head anymore, Henry was quite aware that he'd developed some issues from Bendy's treatment. But he never thought he'd actually listen to that one voice, that one particular voice that insisted that he should do something to rectify the current situation. He told himself that he wasn't that far gone, that it was nothing but intrusive thoughts he'd learn to ignore eventually.

But that night when Alice and boris hadn't left the studio until well past midnight, sonething snapped and he panicked for some reason. That one thought was screaming that them staying late was the turning point, and that if he wanted to make things up to Bendy he would have to act  _now._  

Which he did. He listened to it and tied up the two people that trusted him above all else, and ignoring the tremors shaking through all three of them dragged them to the single most hated place in the entire studio. He meticulously cleaned the place up and carefully set out the numerous tools, ignoring the ink stains. He snuck out and gave Bendy one of the keys along with a message. He'd practically gift wrapped them for Bendy and told himself he was just shaking in anticipation.

_He was nothing but a disgusting creature, unfit to be around other beings._

The worst part, undoubtedly, was that the particular voice that convinced him to go through with his awful plan was still somewhere in his head, whispering mournfully about how he had ruined their chance to make it up to Bendy. He couldn't even tell himself that he wouldn't listen to it anymore, since he'd tried to get out and do just that.

He was so, so glad that Boris was keeping an eye out for odd behavior. He couldn't be trusted to not fall prey to his messed up thoughts again, at least now there would be someone to stop him when he inevitably relapsed. It didn't ease his guilt for what he had done, nothing would , but he was willing to find comfort in this silver lining.

He carefully picked up the still blank piece of paper and simply stared at it. Slowly and carefully, he started to draw a rough sketch of himself, Joey and Susie. He froze when he attempted to draw them smiling, he could feel inky tears drip down his cheeks and splatter onto the drawing. He had ruined this, a friendship spanning decades that had gone through so many twists and turns knowingly ruined by the most sane and rational one in the group.

The worst part was that a small part of him just _didn't care_.

. . . 

Susie Devil Darling, coy trickster that could play the people around her like a fiddle, unapologetic demon and smooth talker, and one of the few that could regularly pull the wool over the angels eyes, sobbed pitifully, sobs wracking her shivering form almost painfully.

The last few days she'd managed to actually get up and out of bed on her own, so progress was being made. Boris was still concerned despite her insistence she was doing fine, but she didn't blame him. She wouldn't have believed herself either.

Susie knew she was worrying everyone, but her emotional turmoil refused to let her rest, much less reassure her friends. When she wasn't attempting to rest for longer than an hour or two, her writhing emotions would constantly drag her back into this wrecked state of mind.

They were so close to being trapped in that hellhole again.

Even now Susie had a hard time really believe they had actually gotten out of there. She was absolutely convinced that night would be her final one as a free being, from then on there would be no hope for escape for her and her companions. 

A small part of her wished it was the case, then she'd be scared of what was actually happening. Instead she had to deal with the horror show her mind was constantly spinning, things getting worse and worse no matter how hard she tried to rationalize her fear to no avail.

She couldn't have stopped crying if she wanted to, every time she closed her eyes, she was _back there,_ helpless and terrified. That place haunted her nightmares and made the shadows in the room a thing to fear, giving her little to no chance to rest. Just thinking about that place caused the flow of tears to start again. 

She _hated it_ when her emotions overflowed like this, paralyzing her into inaction as she desperately tried to get a grip. It irked and irritated her greatly when she was forced to bend to the whims of her feelings. It had happened many times before, she was intimately familiar with pushing her emotions back until she could deal with them privately, but this was the first time ever this emotional state had lasted longer than a few hours. She couldn't have hidden it if she wanted to. 

But oh how she wanted to. Her closest friends finding out about this part of her was always one of her more irrational fears. She knew they wouldn't think less of her, but years upon years of making sure the other demons didn't find out had made it almost instinctual to keep this side of her well hidden from the world.

Alice was a godsend in these trying times. She was harsh and unrelenting, almost cruel, but it was just what Susie needed to get a hold of herself. Not to mean anything bad of course, but Boris was a complete softy that didn't know how to handle people like her. Kind words and platitudes just make her more uncomfortable when in this state, it reminded her of the people trying to lull her into a false sense of security during her younger years.( _once a demon always a demon._ )

Now if only she could get her emotions to _get with the program already_.

. . .

How can you stand to be anywhere near him?! After what he's done?! You need to get out of here!! Grab Susie and get away from all these mad people!!

Joey ignored the voice as he tried to read one of his favorite books. It was a welcome distraction from planning how to get away with murdering Benjamin. While he knew he could be very irrational when panicking, he still didn't see why he had to play nice. Were they conveniently forgetting what that freak had done already?! He didn't deserve pity, much less sympathy. 

But you're willing to let the cat off the hook? HE'S THE ONE THAT DID THIS!! At least put the blame on the right person.

Another reason to hate the freak. What he'd done to Henry, his closest friend, was _unforgivable_. Joey has known the cat for years, the only being in the little town he was assigned guardian angel duties to actually give a damn about him. That alone would have made Joey happy, but he went above and beyond what the angel expected from him. That _freak_  had almost completely destroyed the cat, and didn't have the decency to pretend to be upset with what he'd done.  

Oh, so we're just going to forget how that stupid fleabag was practically jumping for joy when Mr scum of the earth first proposed the idea? He went along willingly, even when the truly messed up experiments started. Face it,  _you shouldn't have trusted him._  

The small angel viciously bit his tongue. He really didn't want to explain why he had started yelling for no explainable reason.

Stop it already, he could always trust Henry. In the neverending cycle his life used to be of people that thought they were entitled to him doing whatever they wanted because _that's what guardian angels do right?_ and the distrustful animal folks that refused to give him a chance to make things up for his horrible first impression, he was the only being that was open to giving him a chance. He met his sister in nature, Susie, because of him. He finally decided to mess with those annoying humans without regrets of caring what the other angels thought, and the animals started to tolerate him as the local loveable troublemaker. His life wouldn't be a good one if Henry wasn't in it.

That was another reason to destroy the freak. He thought he was _entitled_ to them, as if he had the right to twist them however he saw fit. He had more or less wrecked Henry, had reduced headstrong Susie to a pathetic mess, and even now his actions caused him to attempt to pin the blame on his best friend. He stopped biting his tongue, if he didn't stop now he'd probably bite right through it.

 The freak could _rot in hell for all he cared._  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus fucking Christ was this chapter hard to pin down, definitely my weakest one yet. Happily, the muse was gracious enough to give me a new plot outline, but she has informed that if I go off course again she will not let me finish this story. Damn she's harsh.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really short chappy today.

It had taken some time to arrange everything, between making sure that all four of them were well enough to actually go through with it and damage control for relapses taking some time to properly sort out, but it was time to go forward. Alice and Boris had decided it was about time that they sat down and  _talked_ about their problems instead of bottling it up until it exploded.

All six of them were seated in the animators section of the studio. It was neutral ground, didn't have bad memories associated with it, and none of them were crazy enough to start something in Alice's domain.

On the toons side, Henry was nervously wringing his tail. Joey was stubbornly refusing to look at anyone, firmly glaring at a spot in the corner. Susie was the most put together of the group, but even now she was still sniffling and wiping tears away.

On the humans side, Boris and Alice had forced Bendy into the seat between them, which was turning out to have been a good call. The small Asian had tried to get out twice already and was quite jittery, claiming that he would only put the toons on edge and should wait outside until they were finished. 

Boris cleared his throat, knowing that dancing around the subject would do no one any good. 

"You're all aware why we're here, right?"

Joey low mutters were covered by the sound of a foghorn. **"Oh yeah, we're gonna sing, make daisy chains, hold hands, and pretend none of this ever happened. I ain't interested in any of this, so spare me the bull$#@t red."** With that he returned to glaring at the corner.

Rolling her eyes, Susie dried the ink staining her cheeks. She smacked the small angel with her tail before turning her attention to address Alice, who she was most comfortable speaking to.

 **"I do hope you know what your doing. This little meet and greet can end up causing more disaster than Henry did."** She ignored the cat wincing and shamefully lowering his head. Alice carefully reached out to pet the cat, waiting for him to give the clear, before answering.

"While I do see where you're coming from, not talking is exactly the reason the boiling point even happened. If we had talked it over earlier, we would have noticed how far gone Henry was and acted accordingly." The she-devil hummed softly, satisfied with the answer.

Bendy looked everywhere more jittery, but took a deep breath before calling attention to himself by standing up.

He awkwardly cleared his throat before speaking. "I... I have no words that can accurately describe how much I regret doing what I did. Instead of listening to my common sense like a normal person, I let my curiosity guide me down this road. And instead of backtracking once I realized I  _really_ shouldn't keep going, I stubbornly moved forward. I can never say enough that I'm sorry, and even if I could it will never be enough. I'm not asking for forgiveness, Lord knows I've not yet earned your trust, much less that."

He took a deep breath to compose himself, shaking a bit and obviously uncomfortable but unwilling to stop. "I  _swear_ that I will do everything in my power to make it up to you guys. None of you deserved to go what I put you through." 

With that he awkwardly sat back down. Alice gave him a quick hug before addressing the toons.

"Anything you guys want to share with the class?" They stayed silent, side eyeing each other. Both Alice and Boris sighed.

This was going to take a _lot_  of time, most of it tedious.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this came off as awkward and stilted, then I'm doing better at this writing thing then I thought ^_^.  
> Couldn't go any other way peeps, none of them are exactly comfortable talking about their own issues, much less the hot pink tap-dancing elephant reciting Shakespeare in the room.  
> If all goes well, this is gonna contrast nicely with when they've actually worked out the issues they have with each other.


	14. Chapter 14

Three weeks had gone by, and things were going better. Not great, but better.

True to her words, Susie was back to her usual self in the first week. She was still jittery, but was the most held together of the toons. She was also the only one that wasn't fussing that much about the mandatory sessions. She still took her sweet time to discuss how she felt with Alice, but didn't try to change the subject like Henry and Joey kept attempting to do. She'd also taken it upon herself to help out with the Joey situation in any way she could.

Henry was arguably in second, still having fits and mumbling about how he had to fix things, but very open to talking things through. He preferred talking with Boris more often than not. Strangely, and rather worrying, the cat had taken to following Bendy around as he ran around the studio. He wasn't doing much, just hanging around in whatever room Bendy was busy in. He was quite uncomfortable with the situation, but not enough to tell the calico to back off. Bendy had told everyone else in the studio to keep a close eye on the cat, just in case.

And then there was Joey.

Joey as very much a spanner in the works.He has calmed down a lot and wasn't constantly on the brink of a panic attack, but he wasn't willing to budge even an inch on his stance on the matter, and by God did it show. He had to be physically dragged to meetings, and even now refused to talk to anyone, even his fellow toons, during them. He spent the entire time just glaring at everyone.

Oddly enough, Susie and Henry weren't the least bit concerned. They claimed Joey wouldn't put up so much of a fit if he truly didn't care.

**"Do you remember that one episode where another angel tried to get him to take his guardian angel duties seriously, and Joey just ignored him the entire time? That's how he acts when something isn't worth dealing with to him."**

Joey's stubborn resistance aside, the rest of them doing better. Things would never return to the way they were, but they were improving, and that at least was something.

. . .

Alice wasn't actually concerned yet, but it was starting to get close. Susie hadn't shown up to the meeting, which was definitely weird for the toon. Asking around hadn't helped either, no one had seen the she-devil in a while.

She was considering looking outside when a small whimper caught her attention. Was it, coming from the broom closet? She carefully opened it and sure enough, Susie was huddled in the corner. She blinked slowly at Alice, but didn't do anything else.

"What's wrong Susie? Something you want to talk about?" She crouched down so she was eye level with the cartoon demon. Her only answer was a low mumble.

"I don't see how you've come to that conclusion, but I can assure you you're being ridiculous. Just because you had a bad feeling about where shorty was going with the experiments doesn't mean what happened is your fault. So stop sulking about something that isn't true."

More mumbling, softer this time.

"Well shit Susie, I don't know what you want me to do about that. There's not a lot you can do if the person you're trying to help doesn't want help. But hey, if Bendy can have a breakthrough, Joey's is just a matter of when, not if. Are you ready to come out?"

**"No..."**

Alice carefully stroked her head and moved to leave. "Alright, I'll leave you be. I'll send Boris to come check on you in a few hours, ok?" She closed the door behind her.

. . .

Bendy was back to doing his usual rounds now that he was doing much better, Henry trailing behind him a few feet or so. He wasn't talking to Bendy, hadn't during the entire three weeks, but was simply watching him. It was rather weird, but no one saw a reason to look for trouble were there wasn't any.

**What are you doing?"**

Bendy nearly dropped the stack of music sheets he was carrying. He looked at Henry, not really sure if the cat was talking to him. The cat simply blinked, waiting for an answer. "I'm taking these to Alice. There's been some adjustments to the soundtrack and she has a final say in what music we use."

 **"Oh, then can I help?"** Bendy reached out a hand, waiting to see if he objected, and pet the cat between his ears. " No need Henry, I've got it covered. I need to get back into habit checking on everything anyways."

 **"O-oh! I'm sorry sir, I'll get out of the way!"** Bendy froze at thatt, unwanted memories assaulting him.

Henry, _please_ don't call me sir. I can accept that for some god awful reason you still like me, but not that. There's still a lot of stuff to deal with without bringing _that_ up. I'm not kidding, _don't call me that._ "

**"Sorry si-, I mean sorry Bendy. I... I still find this strange, and I'm still getting used to this."**

Bendy let out a small chuckle at that. "Aren't we all?"

He rest of the walk was filled with a rather comfortable silence.

. . .

Joey glared harshly at Boris.

The redhead wasn't the least bit concerned with the toon's attitude. Alice had no patience for him and staying alone with Bendy for any period of time was probably going to end in an attempted murder, so he was usually the one that volunteered to talk to him.

Boris let out a deep sigh. He really was a stubborn piece of work, Boris could see how even heaven had trouble getting him to behave.

"You know Joey, we're not trying to force you to just ignore what happened. That's really not what we're trying to do. But you have to see that this isn't any way to handle this right?" The glare became harsher.

**"Yeah I'm not buying any of this sh#t. I'm. Not. Budging. I _refuse_ to forgive and forget."**

 Boris tilted his head at that. Looks like he had to bring out the big guns.

"I absolutely loathe my father. He really wasn't a nice man,  most of my youth I thought he was a demon that escaped from hell and had trapped my mother. There wasn't a day when I didn't want him gone, and when he finally drunk himself to death it was the happiest day of my short life up to that point."

He looked the shocked and horrified toon in the eyes, he had a good idea what was going through Joey's head. "Do you know what my mother taught me about a week after the funeral, after I said I'll never forgive and forget and would hate him till my dying day?"

"She crouched down, looked me in the eyes, and said "Boris sweetie? I need to to let go. You can decide for yourself to forgive him like I did, and it's your choice to forget, but please. Don't hold onto that. Your father was a good man once upon a time, and holding all that rage isn't going to do anything to him, especially now. It will only hurt you." It's been years and I still remember her words, especially when I look at you."

He took a deep breath to ground himself and watched the conflicted emotions whirl around the small angel.

**"I, I still can't find it in myself to forgive him."** Boris simply nodded. He wasn't expecting his little speech to suddenly make Joey change his ways, but he was most likely going to start actually listening now. It wasn't that much of an improvement, but sometimes baby steps were good enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for 500 hits and 35 kudos!! I'm absolutely dumbfounded that you guys like this dumb thing I came up with.
> 
> Virtual hugs and cookies for everybody!!


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snapshots of the toons hanging with their inspirations and favorite persons.
> 
> (Look how far they've come.)

Boris wasn't sure if he should be concerned about the monster that was Susie and Bendy on a pranking spree, but he figured he didn't have too much to worry about until Joey joined in.

He was currently checking on the two to make sure they didn't do anything too malicious on Henry request (Bendy liked the options Susie's hammerspace brought to the table). The cat had an almost uncanny ability to find them but liked having some back up when doing damage control.

**"I'm pretty sure they're messing with the band's instruments. I just don't know if they're going too far."**

**"** That's unlikely. Alice scolded them just yesterday. They're not going to make too much of a ruckus until Alice isn't ready to pounce them like some kind of hellcat." Henry made a face at him.

**"You call that scolding? I don't wanna know what it's like when she actually threatens you."**

Boris chuckled a little nervously. Alice was not to be trifled with for a damn good reason.

"Don't I know it. I don't know what possesses them to start these shenanigans when they know what'll happen if it makes Alice's job harder."

 **"A startling lack off self-preservation perhaps?"** He almost tripped over nothing as he processed the cat's comment.

. . .

Henry wasn't really sure why Bendy was looking at him so strangely, was he doing something toon-like without thinking about it?

"You want me to what now?" Henry resisted the urge to roll his eyes just barely. 

 **"I want you to teach me how to dance, am I speaking in tongues or something?"** Bendy still looked very confused, so Henry gave in and rolled his eyes. He loved Bendy, but sometimes he could just be so _frustrating._

"Um, any particular reason your asking me? I'm a good dancer but a horrible teacher." 

**"To be completely honest, it's because your not _that_ much taller than me. Sure your five feet, but the only other person that can actually dance in this building is Johnny and he's 5'9."**

Bendy just barely managed to stifle his chuckles and Henry couldn't help himself and joined in. This person right here is the one he cares for so much. The person that loved him and his closest so much that he gave them true life.

"Oh wow, and here I thought you'd already gotten over not being the tallest in the room. But anywho, I'm honored despite the reason behind being chosen. Would you like to start now?"

. . . 

Bendy grinned as he patiently waited for Susie to show and help him lay down the final but necessary touches to their little "endeavor".

It had taken a long time to get here. Weeks of planning, scrapping plans and starting all over had brought forth this, the ultimate prank.

It was absolutely foolproof! The animators wouldn't know what hit them.

And the best part was that Susie had assured him there was no way to pin the blame on them. The she-devil had thought about everything from which people to target and when, culminating in a glorious prank that everyone would assume was just bad luck and faulty equipment ruining thing.

The best part?

Alice couldn't punish them for any of it! Between the two of them there wasn't a single reason to suspect foul play.

It was a stroke of mad genius he himself was proud to say outclasses him on his best days. Susie was a class of her own, the pinnacle of what could be achieved.

It was times like these where he thought that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't beyond helping.

. . .

Joey was willing to admit he was as stubborn as a mule about things and could and would hold a grudge for ridiculous and unreasonable amount of time. It was something that brought him great shame that last few days.

"What did you do before you got guardian angel duty?"

**"I was one of the warrior cherubim. Not the baby angels, the ones with four wings and heads."**

The daily games of twenty questions was brought up and enforced by Alice, stating that even before Bendy absolutely lost it the two of them were pretty distant, with Joey doing most of the avoiding. It had started out incredibly rocky, Joey immediately honing in on what Bendy's excuse was for what he did, if he thought that he deserved the second chance he was stupidly given, when he'd stop pretending to be sorry.

He was immensely confused when Bendy answered to the best of his ability, not hiding anything. It quite honestly knocked him off balance. He stopped being so malicious after six days and was even now quite surprised with the answers he was getting.

**"Why did you even come up with the nickname Bendy?"**

"Bad memories. Ended up in the system at an early age and decided I wanted nothing to do with my actual name. Made it up on the spot so no one would call me Benjamin."

He wondered if this was the person Henry adored so much, the person that Susie liked enough to get him involved with her usually top-secret ideas.

. . .

Alice watched slightly amused as the little cartoon angel carefully worked on some of the line art, tongue poking out between his lips. He had begged for days to be allowed to work on some, but Alice was very sceptical about the authenticity of the request.

She wasn't trying to be mean but he was rather, difficult. Not to mention hyper. She knew he couldn't really help himself, he was a cartoon creature. Causing mischief was practically in his blood and bones.

The last time he was here, he somehow managed to bolt all the furniture to the ceiling in the time it took her to leave and return with her morning coffee.

(No one came to Joey's defense. Messing with Alice's territory was a really stupid idea normally, but doing so when she was in the vicinity was pretty much suicidal and whoever did it deserved what was coming to them.)

He was doing pretty good actually, just barely managing the standard she expected from her team. 

"Well I'll be, you _can_ sit still for longer than twenty minutes without running of to cause some mischief. I always thought you'd explode if you stayed still for too long, thank goodness that's not the case."

The tiny toon huffed but continued. Huh, maybe she should look into letting him helping out every now and again.

. . .

Susie loved to spending time around Boris, especially when he was working. No offense to her friends, she loved them with every fiber of her being, but it was nice to talk to someone that knew their way around an instrument professionally and how to read sheet music.

Susie was currently perched on his shoulder, watching him go through paper after paper as he hummed under his breath. It wasn't a terribly hard piece, but it was proving to be a rather tricky one.

Finally, he held up his latest piece and waited for her verdict. She gave it a scrutinizing look, mentally going through the piece and humming softly as her tail lightly hit his back.

**"Where exactly is this piece going to play again?"**

"At the tavern's jukebox, when Joey barges in to sulk. Idea is that the music annoys him and he goes to absurd lengths to shut it up." She snatched the pencil behind his ear and made a few notes here and there before handling it back.

 **"Looking pretty good, but it is a bit dull. Liven it up a bit."** Boris simply chuckled, his shoulders shaking and Susie getting shaken along. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a while, but that eventually fluff tag is finally relevant! Six pov in a single chapter was probably a stupid move, but I'm quite happy with it!!


	16. Chapter 16

Generally speaking, the toons don't care much for going outside.

Not that they have issue with the idea, from finding new things to revisiting favorite spots they love seeing what the wide world had to offer, but the amount of steps they're required to go through before they even allowed to leave the studio is just irritating to them.

Not being allowed to wander very far from whoever is watching them, having to disguise themselves so the unaware humans don't get suspicious, and needing to plan everything out were among the main annoyances.

So generally speaking they prefer to hang around the studio where they can do as they please without worries. It's comforting not having to hide their true selves and nonhuman natures since everyone already knows they're there so they don't have to hide anything.

But occasionally even the toons want to get out and stretch their legs.

. . .

The toons were in the secret hallway, rummaging through their collection of actual physical clothing. They could probably find something adequate in their hammerspaces, but those kind of clothes tend to disappear rather abruptly, sticking around as long as they were needed and gone the second the gag was apparently over.

Joey definitely had it the easiest. With his only odd features being weird eyes and the floating halo, for him it was as easy as pocketing it and wearing shades to the trip.

 **"Here Susie, how about this one?"** he held up the wide shirt for her inspection. Susie gave the article of clothing a scrutinizing look, mentally checking if it was going to cause issues with her tail. While technically in the same boat as Joey, her tail would occasionally act as if it had a mind of it's own and keeping it from getting noticed was her top priority.

 **"No, too short, keep looking. You know, I usually have this done already."**  Joey's eyebrow twitch at that comment and he tossed the skirt he was holding at her face.

 **"And I've already said I'm sorry for losing your stupid skirt! Cut me some slack will ya?"** Susie simply rolled her eyes but didn't comment about her disbelief. They had things to do, no time to start that argument again.

 **"You did start that prank war Susie, so technically it was your fault."** Susie made a rather convincing look of betrayal, but the cat ignored it and started going through his collection again. He kept his snickering to himself when she dropped it and started helping him again.

Henry was definitely worst off. Joey and even Susie, despite their rather strange appearance, could fake their way through most encounters. But Henry was undeniably furry with an obvious muzzle, so keeping himself hidden without attracting any unwanted attention was definitely tricky.

 **"Okay, I've found my usual scarf but I can't find my hat and cloak. Have either of you seen them?"** Susie waved the hat she'd just dug up from underneath a pile of clothes and Joey froze.

 **"I, may have taken your cloak and used it to scare Lauren. Gimme a minute, I think I know where I put it".** With that the small angel ran of, leaving a trail of smoke after him.

. . .

Susie was going through her mental checklist, muttering under her breath as she made her way to where the rest of the gang was waiting, distant laughter coming from the area. She was admittedly quite rusty with planning these trips, it had been literal _years_ since the toons were last outside. As Bendy slowly but surely lost it, the trips were spaced more apart from each other until they stopped all together.

When she turned the corner she let out a roaring laugh that made the group aware of her presence.

It had been a long time since she'd seen the toons in actual clothes and already the odd sight was bringing back fond memories. It amused her greatly to simply watch as they tried to get comfortable in the to them at least constricting clothes. She couldn't help herself, it just reminded her so much of whenever her neighbors put the dogs in clothes and shoes, awkward flailing and all.

 **"Good to see that we're still amusing Alice."** Joey deadpanned as she kept laughing. He'd try to get closer, but he wasn't comfortable walking around with his shoes yet and he'd rather not faceplant and cause her to straight up die of laughter. 

As if she read his mind Susie joined in again, snickering maniacally. It was always funny to her that Joey had the worst time getting used to clothes out of the three of them. Even Henry and his various layered articles was handling it more gracefully. Bendy simply rolled his eyes before clapping his hands to get everyone's attention.

"All rights people a toons! We've got a busy schedule to keep up with, let's get moving!"

. . .

"Hey guys, go on ahead. I need to tell Brian something real quick." As expected the response was it's usual mix of exasperated and snorting laughter, they expected him to run off and do some last minute checkups. That was fine by him, it made things much easier. He made his way through the entrance and scanned the area for a particular stocky brunette hunched over some storyboards.

"Hey Brian! How are things going?" Brian jumped slightly before turning to whoever called.

"Oh, hey boss. Things are actually going pretty good. We've got everything set a lot faster then we thought. We just need a way to get in and finish up."

"Don't worry about that." He dug into his pocket and pulled out the hallway key none of the others had asked back, completely forgotten in the right mess that entire thing was. "Remember, we can't let them find out about this Brain."

Brian made a conflicted face, hand clenched around the keys. "Do you really think you should do this boss? You've got a lot riding on this not backfiring."

"Don't worry! I've got everything under control, just worry about your end of the equation. I'm off now."

Brian watched as his boss ran off to catch up with the rest.

He could only hope that everything would go fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sweet tits was chapter 3 something!! As you've probably guessed we're reaching the end of this journey. School's starting pretty soon so I'm not going to have much writing time anymore, but I will be seeing this through till the end.


	17. Chapter 17

No one was sure why Bendy had called for the weekly intervention to be moved up the schedule, but considering he still wasn't all that comfortable with them even now something important must've happened.

Bendy was seated in his usual spot, constantly undoing and redoing his tie. It was strange to see him fidget so obviously.

After everyone was seated he stood up, clearing his throat before speaking.

"Guys, I have something, _important_ to tell you. Please, don't jump to any conclusions and hear me out ok? It's about the Ink Machine."

Boris noticed that immediately everyone else at the table froze, Alice paling drastically as well. Seeing his confused expression, Bendy turned to speak to him directly.

"Tell me Boris, should the toons logically be able to exist?"

Boris's answer was instantaneous. "Absolutely not. They're made completely of ink, it shouldn't be possible for them to be moving, much less fully sentient. And their abilities, like hammerspace and Joey's floating halo, shouldn't be able to work in the real world."

"Have you ever thought about how they exist anyway?" Boris paused at that. He'd never really bothered asking how the toons came to life, even now they tend to not talk about certain things and he was scared of hitting a nasty sore spot if he brought it up.

Bendy continued as he thought. "The exact thing I did would be too convoluted, confusing and complex to bring up so I'll try to keep it short. But basically, through a delicate balance of science and black magic the Ink Machine anchors them in our reality. Aside from bringing them to life, it's also the only thing keeping them alive. It functions as a buffer between them and the rules of our world, allowing them to interact with things but keep functioning as if they were still in the Toon world."

Boris's eyes widened at that. He knew the Ink Machine was much, much more than anyone knew, but that it was powerful enough to create and sustain the toons was definitely mind boggling. Suddenly a guilty look spread on Bendy's face.

"I, I used to punish them by threatening to turn it off and to let them loose themselves. Even went through with it a couple of times. It was one way too keep them from trying anything funny." the words were coated with shame as he spoke, all three of the toons shaking. Boris got up and picked them up one by one, Henry and Susie in his lap and Joey on his shoulders. They relaxed, but just barely.

Wheels started to turn in Boris's head.

"Bendy, it's not in its usual place anymore it it? Where is it now." He really hoped he wasn't going to do anything stupid. If he did something now after everything that's happened, it would be impossible for anyone to even entertain the thought of forgiving him.

"It's in the secret hallway now." Shocked expressions were everywhere. He shouldn't be able to get in there, much less move something as bulky as the Ink Machine in! Alice was the first to move, jumping to her feet and slamming her fists on the table hard enough to crack the wood and an absolutely livid expression on her face.

"What?! How did you get in there!!" Wordlessly Bendy reached down and put a key on the table. Alice's eyes widened as she identified what he had placed down in front of her.

Boris eyes darted between the key and Alice before stopping on his friend. "Alice, calm yourself! He's not done explaining!" She snarled at him but sank back into her chair, piercing blue eyes focused on Bendy.

"When did you find time to move it out." she practically spat out.

"When we took the toons outside. The closer they are to the Ink Machine the quicker they start to destabilize and fall apart. They probably only felt a slight itch, maybe a little feverish." Alice calmed down at that, the icy wrath leaving her gaze.

 **"Why exactly did you do that? What's the point?"** they all jumped as Joey spoke. Bendy sighed softly before reaching down again and placing a locked box on the table.

"Even now, after all this time, you're still scared that I'm going to use the Ink Machine against you aren't you?" The toons nodded, seeing no point in lying. Even with things looking up there was a part in each of them that was convinced he would finally follow through on his old threats and let them fall apart and start over.

"You're probably not going to believe this next part unless you can prove it for yourself." he picked up the box and key and stood up, walking and pausing at the door. "So let's do that now?"

He smiled a bit when they all moved to follow. He was finally going to make this particular mistake right.

. . .

There was an almost physical air of tension as the group made their way to the hallway and the Ink Machine's new location. Henry and even Susie were both messing with their tails while Joey was trying to work off some of his nervous energy by sprouting his detached wings and flying instead of walking.

Bendy led the group to the old section he worked in, everyone ignoring the dried ink still splattered about. He stopped in front of a large steel door with no visible way to open it.

"Joey?" The tiny angel hunched in on himself but landed, giving the Asian a wary look. Unruffled Bendy bent down on one knee and held up the box. He swiftly unlocked it, revealing its contents.

It was a large inkwell.

They didn't have time to contemplate what exactly was happening when Bendy spoke again "Do you see that panel on the left?" Sure enough there as a square panel with nine small holes evenly spaced apart from one another. 

"That, my friends, is a custom and one of a kind lock. The person that made it asked if I was actually going to use it, but that was kinda the point. Since all keys are destroyed, the only way to get in would require the ability to pick all nine of the tiny mechanisms at the same time. With your ability to control ink you're the only person that can get in." he grinned at the stunned toon in front of him. "All I ask is that once every three months you let someone check on it, unless you want to learn to do it yourself?"

Joey's eyes widened as exactly what Bendy was saying sunk in. The Ink Machine was the only thing that could truly harm them and with this he'd made sure that no one would be able to hold it over them.

"Nothing I do will ever make up for what I've done to you, but hopefully this will help keep you safe from anyone wishing to harm you, even if it's me."

 **"Bendy, I..."** abruptly the tiny toon flew forward and hugged him. Bendy froze, unsure what to do with himself. After flailing for a bit when he noticed Joey had started to cry, he placed his arms on the angel's back and return the hug.

 **"I, I don't think forgiving you is as impossible as it used to be. Thank you, thank you so much."**  

The other toons and their inspirations could only smile at the tender display.

Eventually Joey pulled away, rubbing at his tear stained face.

 **"Well? Come on people, we've got things to check out!"** and with that he pulled at the ink, manipulating it to move the tiny mechanisms. With a soft creak the door opened, the sound of the Ink Machine flowing through everyone's ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're at the final stretch! This is going to be the first ever personal creative project I've actually finished so I'm excited!!
> 
> As I've said before, things are better. Not great, but better.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was brought to you by Sia - Rainbow. It's a fun song to write to. *listens to song for an hour straight*

As the small group made their way into the room, all of them watched the imposing machinery in the center of the room.The Ink Machine was undoubtedly a thing of beauty, a slick and aesthetic creation that felt as natural as it did alien. One didn't have to have an interest in machinery to appreciate the power it gave off.

The toons in particular were watching it with unconcealed amazement and fragile hope.

Susie was the first of the toons to snap out of it and approach, gently running her fingers across its smooth surface as if afraid that it would fall apart underneath her slight touch. She laughed softly as she ran her hands across it, tracing unknown patterns on its surface. She turned to face Bendy, a small but wobbly smile growing on her face.

 **"You weren't lying right? We're in control of it now?"** Bendy nodded at her.

"I'm a man of my word Susie dear, it's all yours now." Susie's fragile smile bloomed into a large grin and she gestured for her friends to come closer. The three toons huddled in a circle and started to whisper furiously with one another. Occasionally one of them would pop up to watch them or the Ink Machine, but they mostly whispered for the next ten minutes.

Suddenly they rose to stand, identical expressions of determination on their faces. Joey approached the Ink Machine first, placing his hands on it and breathing deeply. Susie and Henry stood behind him, each placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Guys? What are yo-!" A deep sense of _wrongness_ started to spread throughout the room. None of the humans could identify what it was, nothing in the room had changed, but it slowly but steadily spread.

Suddenly a spark started to run around the toons, who were starting to physically strain as they did whatever they were doing. The spark turned into what could only be described as black lightning and intensified, leaving scorch marks in its wake as it bounced around them.

With a terrifying crash the unnatural lightning struck the back of the Ink Machine with a cacophonous crash, a bright light blinding everyone in the room.

The light disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving the humans with a strange sight.

There was a strange door on the back of the Ink Machine, looking as if it was always there. There was also something, off, about the machine. It looked the same, but there was something _strange_ about it.

The toons were on the floor breathing heavily. Susie and Henry looked as if they'd just ran a marathon they were in no shape to take one, Joey held up between their crouching forms. The small angel looked almost dead, halo dripping and his face completely blank with dripping limbs.

Bendy immediately ran of to get some ink for the small toon, returning with a few bottles in his hand. He poured on of the bottles on his face and let out a relieved sigh when Joey's features started to return.

"What the fuck was that?! Didn't I tell you not to push your abilities years ago?! Whatever you were doing could have ripped you apart!!" He handed some of the ink to the two other toons who mumbled soft thank yous as they started to sip and held another bottle up to the tiny angel's lips, who only grumbled but didn't protest.

"Alice, please go get some more ink, there should be some in their room. Now, what did you do and why didn't you tell us?" Boris crouched down to watch toons as Alice ran off, patiently waiting for them to explain themselves.

Susie finished her bottle of ink before she sat up a little straighter. **"We, wanted a bit of insurance. We can convert things we touch into toon friendly material, so we decided to do that to the Ink Machine. Not that we don't trust you, we do! But... We don't want someone that doesn't like us trying to sabotage it, so now the only people that can actually work on it is us toons."**  

Bendy reached out and softly batted the demon on her head before returning to feed the dead tired angel in his lap. "There's a reason I told you guys not to push it! The Ink Machine can only protect you from so much backlash. Please tell us if you're going to do something stupid like this, I don't think my heart can handle another of these surprises."

Alice returned with some more bottles of ink and approached Henry after handing a few to Bendy. The next few minutes were spent making sure that the toons didn't have any permanent damage.

Suddenly, the newly formed door on the Ink Machine started to slowly open.

 **"Hello? Is, anyone here?"** The door swung open completely and another toon carefully stepped through, eyes roaming the room before landing on the group. Every stared at the newcomer, unsure what to make of his sudden appearance. Henry was the first to shake off his great astonishment, shakily rising to stand on his wobbly feet.

 **"Sammy? Is that really you?"** The sheep gasped, hooves flying up to cover his mouth. Henry let out a delighted laugh and sprang on the sheep, knocking both of them to the ground.

 **"SAMMY!! I can't believe it, you're here. You're really here!"** Henry rambled between kissing every inch of Sammy's face he could reach, tail wagging wildly. Sammy, finally out of his shock, pulled the cat into a tight hug and started to nuzzle the his neck, sighing as if a great weight was lifted from his shoulders.

The two sat up and pressed their foreheads against each other, content to simply sit for the moment.

Abruptly, Sammy pulled back and grabbed Henry's ears, tugging them not so gently.

 **"And WHAT in the name of the Creators have you three been doing?! You guys just vanished into thin air, you've been gone for years, YEARS!! We've looked everywhere for you, but we couldn't find _anything_. Everyone think your dead!!"** hot tears spilled down his cheeks, staining the pristine white fur. Sammy trembled as he stared Henry dead in the eyes, demanding answers. Henry chuckled, pulling the hooves away from his ears and held them tightly in his paws.

 **"I'm so sorry, but, something strange came up. Before we knew it we were in this strange place. None of us had anyway of contacting you."** The sheep huffed, but relaxed. Henry held up an arm and indicated to the rest of the group.

 **"Susie and Joey are fine. I would like to introduce you to the Creators. The lady is Alice Saint, the tall one is Boris Wolfric, and the short one is Benjamin Damian."** Sammy had a stunned look on his face, shakily pointing a hoof at the humans. Henry nodded and the sheep looked about ready to faint.

SPLAT

Sammy was sent flying as a cream pie hit him straight in the face and Henry jumped before immediately going to check on him. Alice stood up and went to check on the sheep as well.

Joey winced, bringing up a trembling hand over an eye but not quite managing to stop the flow of ink, but still had a smug look on his face. Bendy shrieked before dumping another bottle of ink on his head, slightly shaking the tiny toon.

"JOEY!! What did I just say you idiot?! You are in no state to be doing anything with your toon logic, much less your hammerspace! Don't push it, I can't do shit for you if you keep aggravating your already stressed out self you impossible creature!" Joey actually looked a bit ashamed, but stubbornly huffed and nodded in Sammy's direction.

 **"He was going to start acting weird, like really weird. I have no patience for any of it."** Susie rolled her eyes in obvious amusement. She smirked reached out and tugged at Joey's ear to get his attention.

 **"Joey, _hun_ , you acted the exact same way. But did me or Henry chuck a pie in your face?"** Joey blushed a deep gray, sputtering denials and excuses.

As both groups went on with their conversations, Boris could only grin. It was nice to see them like this, proof that the toons wounds would scar, but definitely heal.

He had a feeling thing were going to be just fine. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap peeps! I still have an epilogue to do, but this fic is definitely done. Damn, it's the first time I can say that for anything, feels good. I'm not done with this series yet though, not by a long shot.
> 
> I would like to thank everyone that read this thing, I really appreciate ya'll.


	19. Chapter 19

October 11, 2017

. . .

The toons were idly preparing for their yearly (or in Joey's case, monthly) to visit some old friends. They were just about ready to start going. It had been hard the first few years,  but this tradition of theirs was something they weren't about to stop it now. It was, soothing, to tell their creators about how things were going in their absence.

 **"Do we have everything guys?"** Susie asked, straightening her rich ruby dress before putting on her thick winter coat. Even during the beginning of autumn , the she-devil did not handle the cold at all.

 **"Yes Susie. You'd think this is the first time were doing this from your behavior Darling."** Henry had forgone his usual colorful overalls for something a bit more in line of the occasion, a black button up and matching slacks with _minimal_  paint or ink stains (asking for none was a incredibly naive hope).

"You guys better be back before dinner ok?" The toons stopped walking to turn back to face whoever was calling out to them. The tall woman was staring them down, glaring ever so slightly. 

 **"Don't worry Melissa, have you ever known us to stay late?"** The African American woman sighed and rubbed her temple.

" _I_ haven't, but my mom sure has stories to tell about you guys and these visits. Especially you in particular Joey." The tiny angel chuckled nervously, a red blush spreading across his peach skin as he fiddled a bit with his bouncy black curls.

 **"Don't worry Mel, me and Susie will keep an eye on him. Tell the other toons that we're finally visiting ok?"** Henry said while patting the still blushing angel a bit. Melissa simply stood there for a moment before crouching down and dropping a trio of small beaded necklaces in Henry's paw.

"I just found these yesterday. Would you be willing to drop these off during your visit?" The cat's ears perked up and his emerald eyes widened as he identified what exactly she had put in his paw. He nodded firmly before putting them in the front of his bag.

Melissa waved as the trio disappeared in the distance, a melancholic smile on her face. While she'd love to go along with them, she had work to do and people to direct. The studio wouldn't run itself after all.

But Melissa Damian loved it that way.

. . .

Joey hummed to himself as they made their way down the well-worn paths of the cemetery. It had been quite a few years since the last of the original three that made Bendy Draws Studios a reality and almost singlehandedly remade the animation industry had passed and even now their absence was felt. It had been hard for the toons, Joey especially, when they were forced to confront with the reality of their creators mortality. They were creatures of ink, science and black magic made to endure incredibly harsh treatment from both toon or real world sources.

It was only logical that even time would have a hard time killing them.

Bendy had been the first to go, then Susie, and then finally Boris.

Joey had not taken the news of Bendy's imminent death well at all. He raged in a way he hadn't for years at that point, ink lashing around him like a typhoon trapped in a bottle finally blowing up. Even now he hadn't quite gotten over his grief, but no one faulted him that.

He was concerned that he wouldn't be allowed to visit very often due to his behavior, but was incredibly dumbfounded and pathetically relieved when he was told he was free to do as he pleased. Even now he was thankful that no one tried to tell him how to grieve and that he was free to visit their beloved creators as much and as often as he wanted to.

He finally made it to his final stop, confident that Susie and Henry would be waiting for him at the entrance as usual. He sat down on the ground, idly pulling out some of the weeds.

 

 

Here lies Benjamin Franklin Damian

Loving father

An inspiration to many

May he rest in peace

 

 

 **"Hey Bendy, sorry I'm late. There was a lot of stuff I wanted to tell Alice about. Remember that I mentioned the current cartoon wasn't going to dance around Henry and Sammy's relationship? Well, last week there was an anniversary episode about how long they've been together, both of them were running around trying to make the day special. There has been some complaining, but for the most part everyone is happy to finally have their relationship out of the closet."** Joey pulled out the last of necklaces and put it on the ground in front of the tombstone.

**"Remember Melissa, your first great grandchild you held? You'll never believe what she found, its the friendship necklaces you guys made like a bunch of losers when you finished school!"**

Joey could almost imagine Bendy's reaction to these being found. Sputtering denials and demanding you give it back, he was the most sensitive about these sort of things.

 **"I know what your thinking. It probably "Jesus Christ I'm dead already! Give a guy some personal time will ya?!". Heh, that sound about right."** the tiny angel sighed as he watched the tombstone, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. 

**I wish there was a way for you guys to stay with us, there's no line I wouldn't cross if it meant we wouldn't have to say goodbye so soon. But there's nothing to be done, you've been dead for a long while now. I know if tell you this every time, but I swear me, Susie, Henry, and all the new toons will keep the studio alive. We'll keep the things you loved about the job alive.**

_**We'll keep your dream alive** _ **."**

Joey spent hours simply talking, telling him about everything and anything. He knew that none of the creators could actually hear him most likely, but it comforted him and his fellow toons greatly.

**"Well, I'll be off then. If I show up any later Melissa will have my hide. She's just like you ya know, runs a tight shift and does not appreciate bumbling about. Boy did she start shaking things up when she took over.Some of the older members have been calling her the second coming of the Damian family."**

Joey got up and brushed the dirt off his shorts before making his way to the entrance, where sure enough Henry and Susie were waiting. Pretty soon they were off, there was a lot of stuff to do back at the studio and the various shows they produced wouldn't make themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end for this part of the story!! The original creators may be gone, but their legacy remains (even if none of Bendy's kids shared a drop of blood and none of Alice's had the same father) so the toons will as well.
> 
> Next chapter is going to be all about my next bunch of stories, most of which are part of the Bendy Draws Studios series.


	20. Announcement Time!

Well damn, this has been an adventure. I'm really, really shocked that people actually like this dumb thing that happened because I'm au trash, but stranger things have happened.

School has started up once more, so my writing time is going to be cut drastically compared to how much free time I had during the vacation. With this out of the way, I've decided to put this here so I have a clear reference for what the fuck I'm going to be doing.

Let's get started.

 

**Crooked sutures.**

The second part of the series, this will follow whatever I feel like and is exclusively tied to the timeline and events of wounds bleeding black. In general it will be about events after Sammy the sheep shows up. I may have this open to requests eventually, but for now I have plans of my own.

 

**Another time, another place.**

This story focuses on two things concerning the series and will most likely be open to requests from the start, because there's only so much I can plan out on my own. Just don't get mad if I don't use what you give me k? The main stuff in this story is as following:

Alternate universes (recognized only by their characters staying the same. Example: a chapter where the toons are the pets of the humans from the wounds bleeding black story.)

Alternate timelines (recognized by similar event from the story but with different outcomes. Example: a chapter about the timeline where the toons run away and live on the streets.)

 

**Worst case scenario.**

The first part of this thing to be thought up, it follows the canon story in tandem. For the time being this isn't happening since I want all cards on the table before I start seeing what needs to be tweaked for it to go well. Chapter three completely blew up my initial concept, so I'm going to hold onto this story until I know what I can or can't get away with twisting to fit the world of the series better.

 

That's about it for things that I'm definitely going to get to. I have some unnamed and unpolished au stories in development, but those can wait till I have more than the concept going.

 

To Brownie_Bear_Apocalypse, you are pretty much the biggest inspiration I have concerning my dumb stuff, so I would like to give you the option to make four request (two for crooked sutures, two for another time, another place) that will be on my "definitely do this one" list. I can't promise what I write will be good, but I will do my absolute best.


End file.
